Real estate professional in the eyes of IRS

[Carol Lam]

It appears that in order to qualify for the criteria of a real estate professional, you can't have only out-of-state properties which are managed by third-parties.  I live in Bay Area therefore, my initial thought would be to own properties only in landlord friendly states.  But it looks like in order to reap the tax benefit of owning real estate properties, I need to have at least one property in bay area which i actively manage.  Is my interpretation correct?

Also, I am taking some on-line courses on real estate, do you know if those qualify for the 750 hours required by IRS?

Thank you.  

Carol