My guess is they missed a payment, then started up again. 

Your contract is evidenced by the spreadsheet, payments, and likely other communication about the work.

Then you will have a principal and interest payment of around $13,450.00 plus Taxes and insurance so add in another $2800 for $16,250.00 a month. 

Your minimum down payment amount for a 2-4 unit will be about the same as an often required 20-25% down payment on a co-op.

save enough for a down payment and invest in loge term hold.  

The didn't live within their means, accrued a lot of debt, and it eventually resulted in them not paying rent and being evicted.Consolidating debt reduces their payments so they have more money available, but it doesn't automatically teach them to live within their means.

As lenders, well issue a prequal/preapproval letter if we've analyzed your income, assets (bank and brokerage statements to establish that you have the liquidity to afford the down payment, closing costs, and reserves), review credit of the guarantors, review the relevant experience to ensure that we're not throwing our money away on newbies that are wandering around in the dark, and have put together a reasonable plan of attack for the project.

so i had zero debt or interest payments on it while it was being fixed up. 

I'm stressing because I wasn't anticipating this and am not excited about the prospect of paying 2k more than I was expecting when my mortgage payments kick in next month.I'll be searching the forum for answers as well, but since I am kinda desperate at the moment, I thought I would go straight to the source for advice.

That way we could start renting without needing a new down payment and all of the closing costs.