The tenant now claims that he wants to use this deposit for rent payments for January - March.

And her brother could do a quit claim deed to divest himself of the property, and you all could settle outside of an actual transaction.

Can we claim this as our residence and not pay capital gains?

@Garen T.You can claim yourself as the owner I believe in Zillow and update the information.

BRRR in Plano, Frisco, and Mckinney might be a better area to start in due to appreciation alone.I don't know the validity to this claim, but I've read that by 2025 there will be more people working in Frisco/Plano than in downtown Dallas.

I ended up saying I would pay for the medical bill by giving them discounted rent along with the money they'd miss out from not being able to work for three days.

A property I am looking at had a fire about a year ago and the insurance company of the prior owners was nearly done fixing it up before the bank took possession of the property in foreclosure.  There is about $10,000...

I have heard (not experienced) of folks who know they will be selling properties (especially commercial properties) not claim all their expenses on their return for a few years just so they can over state income.  

It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.Google Clayton Morris and/or Morris Invest for a cautionary tale of what not to do when buying turnkey real estateUnderstand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it.

The price of the property is at a premium because of their claimed high rate of income and mostly turnkey business model.