The daughter doesn't have the money (here sister died giving birth to her third child so the parents bought this house for the son-in-law and the kids.

Our family is young, but growing fast with one child already and another on the way.We are exploring our options when it comes to investing in real estate.

This coupled with the birth of my third child. :) Any body have any good names or contacts?

As a child, the trips up and down were just child's play :)As an adult, I still get around fine, but would grow tired of going up and down stairs regularly to do laundry.

The first 10 min of the conversation was her explaining how she could not afford the electric bill and had to make monthly payments, owed her baby's daddy child support, owed the IRS 20k +, had her wages garnished and had less than $50.00 in her bank account. 

Hi all - I'm married with one child so far, in my mid-30s.

I would write down principal, I'd ask if that included taxes, "does that include insurance", do you have an HOA, is there a second loan on the house, a HELOC or any unpaid child support liens, and then I would say, very casually "about how much will it take to bring the house current?

That construction also coincided with the birth of our first child. 

It has been a great first experience, it nearly paid our mortgage by itself while my wife and I went through masters programs and had our first child.

I hate to get personal and even say this but However, some underwriter may also consider the possibility of alimony/child support payments that may reduce your income.