You Can Buy This Ghost Town on Craigslist for $350,000

Four simple words, two exclamation marks and a dollar amount on Craigslist say it all:

“Ghost Town for Sale!! $350,000.”

It’s not every day a bona fide ghost town goes on the market, even on a small highway in the remote plains between the Rocky Mountains and the Kansas state line about an hour east of Denver. But that’s exactly what the owner of Cabin Creek, Colorado, has done.

“Have a huge family? Want to start a business? Need a huge shop? Racing Fans? Fix and flip? Just want acreage out of town? Own it all,” owner James Johnson writes in his Craigslist post.

The property sits on just under five acres and includes an old gas station, eight-room motel, a roadside cafe, RV park, a house, mobile home and even a private shooting range, according to the listing. It also was the reported site of a murder in the 1970s, which is when the town essentially shuttered.

Johnson told KDVR News his listing has generated a lot of attention from prospective buyers. “We’ve had so many people look,” he said. “It’s been amazing.”

Johnson is offering to personally finance the property for a buyer willing to put down half of the $350,000 asking price. Anyone else will need to pay in full or attain a mortgage, which will most likely need to be a commercial loan, given the property type. Because commercial loans are considered riskier than residential loans, lenders generally require a 20% down payment and an 80% Loan-to-Value Ratio.

As with any mortgage, you’ll need decent credit to get approved, and the better your credit, the better the loan rates you’ll be offered. In this particular case, you’ll also most likely need $70,000 for the down payment.

So, if your dream is to buy your own ghost town, make sure your credit is in good standing. You can start by checking your two free credit scores, updated every 14 days, on Credit.com. You can also check your free annual credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com.