Help Estimating Rehab Costs for First Home Buyer

[Nadezhda T Karkelanova]

Hello wonderful community! 

I am a big time BP fan but so far most of my investing has been in the stock market (I work in finance so that is a field I understand better). However, we are in the market for our first house. We found a property that we really like but will need a lot of work. We have not made an offer and done a full inspection yet because I was hoping this community can help guide me approximately how expensive the rehab of this house would be. It is an old house build in the 1910 and it has been unoccupied for a number of years. The home is in Hopewell NJ and they are asking $400k and selling as it. From touring the place, I estimate all the major things would need replacing or fixing. That includes the roof, septic, well, oil tank (potentially), installing HVAC as there is currently no central air, there are some cracks on the walls which I don't know if they indicate foundation issues, the house is sloping in places, there is water damage in the basement and the attic. Can someone who has experience with contractors in this area or at least New Jersey give me the worse case estimates for each of those things? Other than that, the rooms look mostly cosmetic, new flooring and paint (I am pretty sure there are hardwoods under the carpet as that is what they have in the attic). In an ideal world we would want to convert the attic to the primary bedroom and add a bathroom up there so an estimate for that would be appreciated as well (though it is obviously not a priority).