No problem.I am happy to pay in cash, check, wire transfer, Chilie's gift cards... for consistently used contractors you can even set up a local joint checking account, transfer it in, and let them scoop the money out. 

Maybe some family member gave them as a hopeful gift.

If it were me I'd get them a Dairy Queen gift certificate and maybe a $25 credit but i wouldn't say you "must".

The better option would be if someone gave you a gift of money! 

Also the down payment of 3.5% of the purchase price can be a gift thereby having you put zero down.FHA keeps getting more and more expensive.

Tell them I sent ya if you do signup, sometime they send me fun gifts for referring other investors

Your mom could be in for a big gift tax hit if she does not structure this correctly.

If you set it up with advice on here I would be less confident.At a minimum you could add separation in your "Asset" LLC but putting each property in their own LLC owned by a parent LLC but that only provides you with as much protection as the rest of the structure.if you are doing this with your brother one begs the question whether the transfer of assets into another person's name causes gift or income tax consequences... 

If she is always paying by the end of the month, you have essentially gifted a month's rent to her.

From the time we both start down different paths, to the time of payoff, both of us are getting the same appreciation, so the only difference between paying off the mortgage early and not, is you are "buying" your equity...I'm having it gifted to me by my tenant....and have a higher cash flow adding up while my tenant buys my property for me.In summary, both of us get the same appreciated equity.