Dwight your lender will want to see 3-6 months of liquid reserves in order to approve the loan.

Usually the discharge date if it was a Chapter 13 you can get a waiver and get approved within 2 years. 

Will we be able to go put a down payment or a couple of down payments on real estate with that money and still get approved for the loan/loans? 

Here's what we do (copied from our website):Screening ApplicantsPoor screening often results in lost rents, legal & court costs and costly damages.Screening of applicants includes the following:Full credit/eviction/criminal checks are done, instead of score-driven reportsVerification of rental history includes validation of actual property owner to avoid fraudVerification of stability of income & employment via YTD paystubs & W-2(s) (analyzed to confirm not fakes)Income is calculated 3 ways to spot stability anomalies: pay period, YTD average and YTD + W-2 average.Debt-to-income analysis (more accurate than traditional 3x rent requirement)Bank statement to see if NSF issues, if deposits support income, prove MoveIn Funds, also analyzed for unusual transactions.Pet screeningHolding Fee required from approved applicants to make sure they are serious, before your property is marked pending.

They’ve also applied for the partial CO for certain floors, but that CO has not been approved.

that will determine is you need a lot of dwelling coverage or very little.As far as investing in condo I believe it is more b/c in order to make changes sometimes the condo assoc. has to approve anything and that can slow down your timeline. 

Provide lender APPROVAL subject only to appraisal and keep the contract offer really short like 20 days,

Hello all, my name is Jairus Wilder and I am a 21 year old from Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area and just got pre approved for my first property.

I believe that makes the rental market hotter though, as most residents can't afford or get approved for houses. 

If they do, there may be very strict guidelines such as 2 year minimums, 180 day minimums, an HOA application and approval for potential tenants, etc... lots of weird stuff.