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. 

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

There are a lot of opinions from people who have no first-hand experience.

I’m trying to think about my experiences in short and long term as a renter.

It's also helpful to interview a few candidates to see who you feel most comfortable with in terms of understanding your goals and who can offer practical advice tailored to your investment strategy.Make sure to ask about their experience with real estate investors, their fee structure, and whether they have dealt with setting up similar business structures.

Wondering if anyone had long term experience with this group, and how it was going?

He has nearly 40 years experience and his properties are owned in his personal name.

Does anyone have advice, experience and/or success with out of state investing in Minnesota?

Getting started, gaining experience, there was opportunity for instant equity.

From personal experience, my first property was a HML that I met here in BP that help me start the journey.