Someone in my neighborhood was looking for an apartment with a total of five roommates  and since they seemed like a right fit at that time I moved forward,  they added another roommate later and now want to add another roommate as they are struggling to make payments.

Of course, Down payment assistance is available and the you can negotiate closing costs in certain circumstances but your chances of doing both are only reasonable if the property/seller are in a tough spot and the property isn't popular on the market.  

You should still expect to be bring down at least 20% down payment even with a value add situation if you are new to the game.

The tenant can only be required to move out at the end of a rental period (the day before a rental payment is due).

Out of state can be difficult if you don’t have a reliable team in place.

Curious how you vetted your tennats when you replaced them to avoid late/no payments

So they scraped together the $10 - 20k necessary as a down payment for one of the real estate personality marketing systems (that also charge a back end percentage of the future sales revenue), and were given the program they would be pitching.Many moons ago I was at a RICH Club (Realty Investment Club of Houston) meeting, when a certain well known former television real estate fix and flipper was the guest speaker.

They collected over $9.000 in damages, cleaning fees and rent payments.  

I am working with a lender that can liquidate credit cards for 10% to use on a down payment on a Tri-plex.

As long as the home appraises the equity should count as your "down payment".