Gifting equity in a house may be more trouble than it is worth if you are not near the life-time exclusion1) Potentially having to get the property appraised everytime an equity is gifted2) Having a title company update the title every time3) Exemption of the gift tax return is normally for cash gifts below the annual gift tax exclusion, you may still need to file if you gift non-cash4) If there is partial ownership over several years, having to properly pro-rate certain items such as real estate taxes, mortgage interest and rental income if the property is a rentalBest of luck 

With syndications many operators are using finance magic to juice returns, but that can result in full wipeout on the investors.

I'm going to reiterate what's already been mentioned above, but I'm going to actually give you examples of why it's relevant to you to find a U.S. tax professional.1 - You're going to need to file U.S. taxes once you have property down here, there's federal filings, state filings, and sometimes local filings too2 - Tons of tax treaties between the U.S. and Canada that are easy to miss and can cost you a lot of money (important one with rentals - effectively connected income - if the professional you talk to doesn't know what this is, run away)3 - The amount of days you spend in the U.S. needs to be tracked and if you go over a threshold, all of your worldwide income could be taxable by the U.S.4 - Selling real property means up to 15% of your sales proceeds might not be available to you for years (FIRPTA)5 - Lots of nuance at the state and local levels, which both want to take as much money from you as possibleMain takeaway here is that you should find a U.S. based tax person.

I don't like the returns but we use regular savings accounts. 

- Run a cost segregation study on this property in 2024 and you might have $100k on line 18...Without diving too deep on this post - If you run this scenario as a real estate professional while materially participating in the property, You'll be able to reduce your's and your spouses taxable income that year... 

Nate @Nate Marroquin   You can use the income from your tax returns on the current rental adding back your paper loss (depreciation) and add back the mortgage interest, property taxes, home owners insurance deductions on your tax returns. 

Cash out refinances after a 1031 exchange are not a taxable event.

Looking for any creative input on how something like this could be structured.Taking part of the purchase price of real estate as a charitable donation and using said deduction to lower your taxes is tantamount to sending a cover letter to the IRS with your return requesting an audit.  

My goal is to ensure that I hit the 1% rental return per month.

Thus, your return would be about 11%.