With a gift of equity as down payment, I filled out the paperwork and took official ownership of the house.

Your parents can do a HELOC to pull cash and gift you those funds to make the purchase up to a certain amount. 

As your equity grows from the tenant paying down the mortgage (rent) and the economy (appreciation),...both free gifts to you,...it grows on a 1 to 1 basis. 

Because you have a lot of finance knowledge...but more importantly, the gift of filibustering a two minute answer into 30 minutes.

I was reading about Detroid in National Geo Mag and it sound slike the city will bulldoze abandonned homes if the property tax is not paid and then seed grass and gift the lot to the neighbor who is stipp paying taxes.

when you transfer it to yourself is it considered a gift, or a sale/ purchase?

Also, a seasoned co-op listing agent will know how to present buyers that have unusual income streams, are self employed, are maybe trying to time a sale and purchase, or are doing gifting, co-purchasing, or need guarantors, etc.

No closing cost could be rolled in and i actually had to scramble to pull out a loan against my 401k to cover the closing, and my agent gifted $1000 of his commission to help.

You also have the options of getting a cash gift from relatives to assist with your upfront costs. 

But thanks for telling everyone not to worry about gifts as long as they are less than $12M.