Home improvement advice needed

My city has a program where you can buy city owned properties for a dollar if you agree to fix it up within 18 months. Im thinking about doing instead of buying a house the regular way. Now there's a reason they sell the homes this way. It would basically be a total gut and remodel. I would need to take out a home improvement loan.

Does anyone have any advice?

Specifically I'm looking for advice related to the loan and how it would work. I'm guessing I would need 50-100k in total funding but I'm really not sure.

I'm also looking for advice from anyone who has remodeled a home. I know I could hire a contractor but I'm a little confused on the whole thing.

I honestly don't know what I would be getting myself into and just looking to see if this is right path for me.