. = $1,650/mAssume an income potential (profit) of $100k/year for my Retail business (gift/souvenir).

It’s truly a priceless gift.

Since it was a large sum and we did not want to pay gift tax, we did it as a loan using the IRS interest rate that was effective at the time of borrowing.

Small personal touches like greeting cards during the holidays with gift cards/local gift certificates might be a good option.

My brother ended up becoming that primary renter (he’s responsible and conscientious like me), and my aunt is no longer in this picture due to her circumstances.If my grandma had sold the house and gifted us the money, my understanding is that, to avoid being taxed, she would have to gift it in increments of 14k per year, but could do four of these in one year, each grandparent to each of my wife and I, so 56k per year.

2) Gift basket/raffle ideas?

Why would a borrower be paying taxes on a loan unless it were a gift? 

Personally, if I was in your situation I would try to convince my parents of their ultimate goal to leave a legacy family gift to their generational offspring and my guess is that they are likely going to get much better loan terms due to their age and likely financial stability all that to say I think it is a much wiser decision to get the loan (it's rather small compared to the value of the home) get the rehab done as quickly as you can so you can start the leverage (basically making more money then the loan payment on the loan of 90K might be 1K-2K and if your rent is 3.5K then you are making overage aka Leveraging) and if you and them think of it as a family project then your parents won't have to think that they are going it all alone navigating this new adventure.

With that portion being roughly 200k, my father-in-law can't simply give us the money as there is tax on gift payments above 15k to my limited knowledge on the subject.

Well, she had to cover the gift taxes, but I didn’t take any profits.