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Hi All, I’m a newbie to the forum and as can tell from my user name, I’m anxious. My husband and I are considering buying a 3 story limestone/brownstone in Brooklyn. This is our first time buying and bascially first time dealing with all the issues of buying an old house or any house for that matter. We got the home inspection back and it was pretty grim. We are not sure if we want to walk away or not. The house has not been maintained at all so it needs tons of work. We are trying to figure out how much we should ask off the price to make this worthwhile. I was wondering if anyone has ballpark estimates for the stuff listed below. Also any names of a good contractor that does free estimates.
Thanks much,
Jen

Here are the issues:
- Lead water main, most likely cracked as water is coming into the basement. The fire hydrant on the opposite side of the street.
- leak in the bay window and water damage
- ancient boiler that needs to be replaced with gas
- electrical circa 1920′s needs to be upgraded
- asbestos that was partically and not professionally removed
- no griter in the basement (it must have been removed at some point), need to install
- repointing the back side of the building
- redo browstone staircase, it is crumbling in parts