Logging Hours

[Alexis Dedrickson]

To be considered a real estate professional, you have to work a minumum of 750 hours a year and those hours have to be more then any other job you have. How exactly do you log hours? I was told there is a list comprised of all activities realted to real estate investing that gives the number of hours it takes to complete them. Anyone know where I can find such a thing or have any better ideas?

Thanks!

[Jon Holdman]

The IRS definition of "real estate professional" has nothing at all to do with being a real estate agent, Realtor, or having a license. If you're a real estate professional, you can take passive losses each year, regardless of your income. The requirement is that you have 750 hour OR more hours than any other job. So, if you have a full time job, and work 2080 hours per year, you'll need 2081 hours of RE work to meet the definition.

Now, I've seen a presentation by a tax guy (Al Alieo, I think) at one of our REIA who says what counts is much more liberal than I would have thought. For example, he claims watching "Girls Gone Wild" would count. Why? Because you don't want those people as tenants, do you? So, you have to watch them so you know what to look out for.

Jon