If you're refinancing to a business purpose loan that's totally fine, but chances are good you'll need a lease in place for the unit you were occupying so the lender feels confident that it's strictly going to be used as an investment property.

Depending on your estimate of the ARV and the ability to raise the rent on the 1BR, this looks like a "lendable" deal, IMO. 

So in fact, I have the place rented (was going to show it to others on the slight chance they fell through.

Look at before and after pics and real estate listings for a flip and estimate what work they did and what it would cost you.

We give the tenant one chance to communicate about things like messy yards or parking on the grass.

Please also make sure how much points or cost you are paying by looking at the Loan Estimate.

I'd have to figure out what good cash flow is, but there's a chance I could be taken off the loan that I'm a cosigner on and it would help my DTI a lot.

You are correct, that this has long been the conventional figure used to estimate cost for buildable sf in NYC. 

After you expressed dissatisfaction and not wanting to move forward to give your property a chance, we refunded your technology fee in full as a gesture of goodwill, even though significant time and resources had been invested into your property’s preparation.Our 30% management fee reflected the value-added turnkey services we provided you at the time.

Couple of things I would add as I am an investor and also a licensed GC(i.e. builder)  there in the area. 1) That property might have a zillow estimate of 1.9 million but its only 4,000 sq ft.