How much does it cost to remove acoustic ceilings?

Layla and I got our first tour of some homes today and, due to the price and location where we're looking, have seen a lot of fixers.

After seeing a handful of these homes-in-need-of-attention, I'm left scratching my head to figure out how much it really does cost to get a contractor to fix things.

I've got anecdotal evidence that it costs around $10/sq. ft. to get hardwood floors installed around here. We looked today at a place with around 1,000 sq. ft. of carpet (mostly new) that's just begging to be replaced by some nice hardwood, so that's an easy $10k we can write off right there—less if we do it ourselves. Either way, we've got the numbers.

But ... what about tearing out a dropped ceiling? It looks like it should be as simple as pulling down some drywall, joists, and repainting; but if it goes horribly horribly wrong, how much would it cost to do it right? And what about acoustic ("popcorn") ceiling removal? I also realize it can be done by hand fairly easily, but if we happen to find a home with asbestos, we'll need professionals to take care of it.

And the huge pain in the ass is that although there are gazillions of companies clogging up search results for this sort of thing, nobody will actually go out and give a price estimate, since they're all really interested into locking you into doing business with them by actually sending someone out there to assemble an estimate for you.

So for those of you who have homes or experience with contractors: any idea where I can go for estimates? I'm guessing that if I call up a local contractor, they're not going to give me a ballpark figure, and we're not in a position to have one come out to give an actual estimate.

Gah.

P.S. The pictured split-level sure is rockin' the Mock Tudor.