And it's wise to build a contingency should a big repair come up.I assume a 45% expense ration as a quick calculation and firm up the numbers based on the data. 

L.A. saw the nation's largest number of small business closures due to COVID-19 and a winter surge in cases, forcing health care workers to start rationing care.

Also, I do not want my debt to income ration to increase.

I suppose this could be a brand new agent, but even if that were true, he should still know better.Assuming that there's no rational explanation, I'd contact his broker and file a complaint with the local Board of Realtors, assuming that he's a member of NAR. 

As far as I know the gift limit is around 15k and there is no way he can rationally drive the sale price down due to “needed repairs”.

I had a feeling most would say to hold on to it, just needed to rationalize it again. 

It's just hard for me to predict the future and I like to keep my options open, so I haven't done it.That might not even be a rational way of looking at it - it's probably not - but summarizes where I got to when I considered it a few years back.Also, in terms of multifamilies, I think it makes a big difference if you're paying the utilities or your tenants are.

Everything else is fluff and/or rationalizations.

My rationalization is that I can just evict her if things don't work out.

So not the best answer but hope my story or rational is helpful.