Her house is on 10 acres of land that were gifted to her from my father and mother-in-law.

Get to know some Realtors, get on their radar, take them out to lunch, send them a Starbucks or Wawa or Panera gift card with a note thanking them for their time on the phone or talking to you at lunch. 

I saw the 2008 financial crisis as a once-in-a-lifetime gift (I was able to Rothify a Traditional IRA for 50 cents on the dollar in terms of the taxes I had to pay).

Say no, wait until it becomes a demand then re evaluate. maybe consider improving something or buy her/him a gift.

The scenario I am thinking of is say I have 25K of 'earned income (K-2 from business) but I am gifted 28K from a couple of family members.

@Paul Ortiz  is there a way to buy gift cards at a discount using bitcoin?  

The more you use these funds over and over, the lower the cost per use becomes.It's the gift that keeps on giving...but your charge card only gets billed one time. 

Picture yourself trying to tell your child that you could not buy him or her an item or send him or her to college because you had to pay a stranger's rent so the stranger could buy gifts for his or her child.

I've given them boxes of chocolate as Thank You gifts and they are always very helpful and pleasant, and go above and beyond.I also have long term rentals, the HELOCs were $99 for the application fee.

He didn't have a will, and this house was given to both of them as a wedding gift a long time ago.Long story short, mom would love to sell her house, but her step daughter (dad's daughter) seems to think she has some ownership rights (and she may), and therefore doesn't want to sell at a price anywhere near what a run down vacant house should sell for.