College Financial Aid - FAFSA and Commercial Real Estate

[Christopher Brown]

Anybody have any experience with the "small family business exclusion" on the FAFSA and commercial real estate? There are a few threads on the forums with good info but none dealing with commercial real estate business assets. My self storage business seems to meet most of the requirements for being excluded from my total assets - the business/real property is owned by a family-controlled pass-through LLC, has employees but fewer than 100, provides services in connection with its real estate holdings, and keeps separate bank accounts in the business name. But I state the income on my Schedule E, which I imagine many of us do. Others on this board must have dealt with this for actively-managed commercial real estate assets - hoping folks can share their approach or the guidance they've been given. @Dave Foster, you have any thoughts on this?

(I understand that the pass-through business income is obviously part of my total stated income for FAFSA purposes.  And I also know that many schools use a financial aid calculator that does NOT exclude small family business assets, so probably an academic exercise at the end of the day...)