I have a realtor in the area but I'm not sure of her experience in the STR world.

Would love some advice if anyone has any experience in this.

See my experience with them here. 

If I saved for 5 years to buy one 250,000 home in cash, I sacrificed the opportunity to pursue more deals. sacrificing 5 years of appreciation and experience in real estate.

Is a fee typical or what has anyone's experience been or any suggestions.?  

All my experience is with residential properties so I don't have a great understanding of the difficulty involved with evicting commercial tenants.

If you provide a scope of what you are demo-ing, you may have better luck with someone's experience to comment here, but costs can vary regionally, so a local contractor would give you the best actual estimate. 

This is a great route for investors who don't have the time or want to spend the effort sourcing deals.Like we have discussed an investor friendly agent is one who has experience investing personally but also has referrals for contractors and property management for you on the back end making it a very seamless investment as well.

In your experience, did you leverage debt services expense (aka mortgage expenses) in your application?

., and borrower profile requirements such as experience level, credit, and other important aspects to your borrower.