They have the gift of time especially someone in their 20s.

You can search for gift on this forum and   that will give clues

I feel the blockchain is BTC's greatest (and probably unintended) gift to us all.I would still rather own Real Estate than BTC, so I love the playbook of the asymmetrical risks of putting a little into BTC and letting the extreme gains fund real estate investments.I would encourage the bears to do more research.

I have a gift that will be coming I'm the amount of 5,000.

Like a coffee gift card, snack basket, etc.

So I would educate them on the fact that they were given a gift for many years, and now that you have finally chosen to raise rents to market (so that you can make the profit that you deserve) they will have to wait for a year so that you can put aside some of your new (and well deserved) rent increase to pay for their nrew floor.

Dang that's crazy, sounds like a gift from heaven haha.

Also, it seems like you are looking a gift horse in the mouth here.

My understanding is that a gift cannot be used as a down payment for an investment property, so my thought is to wait 2-3 months before applying for a loan, to season the funds. 

A new loan officer or one not familiar with DSCR might offer you the best interest rate and fees on a DSCR loan because their pricing engine told them, but your specific scenario may not fit. for example, a deal I am currently working, First time investor, First time home buyer, living rent free, seeking 80% LTV purchase, Using Short term rental income to meet DSCR, with gift funds.