Every few months I get the "gift" of free tickets to the limited seating of Flip or Flop's Tarek and Christina's live show.

This is not a "gift."  

Go to a grocery store that sells Lowes gift cards during Black Friday events.  

We can assume its one time, but that's a dangerous assumption to make maybe he pays that to his brother-in-law every year instead of an XMAS gift.

@Jay Hinrichs had great advice - pull a family member into this and get them to gift you the down payment! 

It's not a special gift or anything, it's just I sacrificed so much of my time in the beginning, that it's now paying dividends. 

BUT I would give them a $50 or $100 Amazon or grocery store gift card after it’s all done and thank them for their patience.

If someone wants to believe that a hand written letter is gods gift to men they will see it.I have done tests.A professional letter will outperform a professional letter any day.The point of a personal letter is to come across as not a mass mailed spammy letter.

I gifted the money to LLC. 

I also signed up under the National CREIA (Real Estate Investment Club) and I get quarterly refund gift cards directly from HD.