I received a CA rental property as a gift in 1998 from my dad. Dad passed away in 2001. I am is selling the property now in 2015. Dad bought the original property in 1969.

My understanding is the basis of a gift is the basis of the gifter (dad).

My questions are:

1) How do I figure out the sale of the property in 1969 when dad bought it? We do not have sales information from my dad's records. Only a grant deed.
My understanding is, I need this sales information to determine gain for taxes.

2) In 1998, when I received it as a gift, my understanding is, I need to know if he used a life time gift exemption or an annual one, in order to calculate the basis. We do not have records of the 1998 tax return to know what he did. Does the tax dept have that? If not, what do you suggest?

3) Also, how do I figure out the land vs. building ratio of the 1969 sale?

As you can probably tell, I did not use the annual rental depreciation all these years or I would have know some of these questions. My uncle was doing my taxes for all these years, and I found out just this month, that I should have been doing it. I know that was dumb of me, but I think the basis is very low so maybe it didn't affect me that much.

Thank you for your time. Sorry ahead of time if I do not make sense or stated something wrong.

Also, if anyone has recommendations of a tax person in Southern California, please let me know.