First time fix and flip - estimating costs and finding contractor

[Zack Goldglantz]

Hi All, first time posting on here. My wife and I have been looking for a fix and flip for the past couple months. We found a place that we believe is a good investment based on the location and size of the property. The work that needs to be done is a bit much for a first time flipper, but we remain confident we can get it done. What we are currently having trouble with is that we don't know how to estimate the costs of some major things such as expanding the footprint of the second floor. It's a brick house and we want to extend the house both on the main floor and the second floor. Also we would be converting the multi family into a single family. Does anybody have experience doing this and can give us an estimate for the costs and headaches involved? We also need help finding a contractor. I'm a bit scared to go to contractors through google or angies list because of the horror stories I've read on here. How can I find a reliable contractor?