Even if you go the owner finance route, they can still pull your credit and treat you as if you were trying to get traditional financing.

You may decide to carve out some cash to pay a bill or treat yourself or honor the gift. 

And every state will be a little different in terms of how you treat the deposit.

Reference 10/16/2016: https://www.housingwire.com/articles/38635-trump-treasury-pick-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-will-be-privatized/In mid December 2020, as detailed in this article entitled Mnuchin Rules Out Freeing Fannie-Freddie Before Biden Takes Over, it became clearer that the destruction of the US housing finance market would not happen and IMO the treat of a 'scorched earth' policy (at least for the housing finance industry) was averted.

Just talk to her and say rent is now $200 more. or what ever makes you feel that your being treated right.. 

Serious inquires only.Would I treat this analyzation as a "single property" by using the purchasing price and all other info as one combined piece of information?

We were just action oriented and even if we lost money, we treated these units as a mini pension, so when we pay off in next 20 years, it’ll just pay us a steady flow of income vs. us wasting money on consumer stuff since we are natural spenders. 

Would this contribution have to go into the expenses related to the purchase of the house, thus depreciated over 27.5 years, or would this be treated as a standard, deductible contribution, same as any other?

Most treat it more like a job than a business. 

Treat it like you're trying to wholesale the property.