Gift tax and transfer of property

[btbeme]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? CA and MT
I currently live in California, and my mother lives in Montana. She owns a lakefront property outright (bare land) worth about $250,000. That property is currently in a Living Estate, with myself and my three sisters named in the estate.

We would like to build a home on that property, but my wife and I are the only ones in the family with the financial means to do so. The banks we have spoken with say that they will only make a construction loan to an individual (or group of individulals) and not an estate or trust. Because of that, I would like to know whether my mother could gift the property to me and my wife without any of us being hit with any prohibitive taxes.

Since my mother hasn't made other gifts of value in her lifetime, it appears to me that she could make this gift freely, without taxes, and have that gift count against her lifetime $1 Million exclusion. And, it seems that, until I sell the property (not going to happen), I will not have to pay taxes either. Is this correct? What circumstances would have to happen to trigger a gift tax? Certainly. I would like to include my sisters as equal shareholders of the property once the home is built, but I do not want to trigger a tax at that time either. Am I correct in my assumptions? Any advice on how to do this?