Dilapidated fourplex worth it?

[Daniel Winsauer]

What I found:

I've been looking for my first 2-4 unit building in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for a little while now. I came across a fourplex in McHenry that looked like a good price but it had been sitting on the market for over a year so i knew something was up. I talked to my realtor and he said that when he looked into it he saw that it was not only vacant but had a laundry list of city violations.

My concerns and thoughts:

Obviously if a property has been on the market for a long time I'm not the only one who has looked into it and shied away. The list of violations includes everything you can imagine from foundation cracks to roofing to caulking to graffiti. My agent said it was the longest list he's ever seen (about 4 pages). I don't want to shy away from the deal but I might be getting over my head if I go through with this deal. I know the #1 way I'm going to screw this up is by not estimating rehab costs. It's going to basically need new and repaired everything but the ARV will probably be a ways north of $400,000. I'm trying to plan out the costs and I imagine them being hundreds of thousands of dollars but I think the owner would probably let it go very inexpensive because of all the issues. I guess my thinking (which might be flawed) is that repairs might be in the 200s but even then there is still money if I get the property cheap enough. That budget could even be low it's just hard to imagine spending that much on repairs. My exit strategy would be to sell with the back up of renting.

My questions:

What is the best way to estimate rehab costs on a building in such disrepair? Any advise on doing a renovation this large?