Is this going to come back and bite me in the butt as a "gift"?  

She invests in Milwaukee I think (and kicks butt at it).As mentioned in a post above, buying properties at a discount is key so your "equity capture" (the difference between your all in cost including purchase, repairs, and financing vs. the appraisal value after repairs) essentially covers your down payment (or at least as big a chunk of it as possible), which allows you to keep more cash for future acquisitions. 

He will not give them authorization to speak to me.The man I purchased the home from is saying if I sign the deed back over to him this will all go away and added he states should he be able to get refinanced at another institution he will sign the deed back over to me....that is a lot to ask from a single mom who has worked her butt off to provide this home and school district for my kids.

I'm sorry I waited so long to "plug in".

I have some general numbers in mind, but I need to plug the data in the spreadsheet that I just built (literally finished it haha!)

Work your butt off.

I would be sure to (a) make sure prospective tenants are aware of how I will split utilities, (b) put appropriate language into the lease to cover my butt, and (c) send out a copy of the gas bill every month to my tenants to be as transparent as possible. 

Nice plug @Zach Evanish I am guessing since you are in San Fran you are just selling someone else's homes as an affiliate correct?

If you want RE that bad, then work your butt off and get them paid off so you can do that quicker.

That would be the easiest part because it's just plugging numbers in a formula.