Advantages of being a "real estate Professional" for tax purposes Vs disadvantages

[Ray Slack]

So, I keep hearing about it being great to be classified as a "real estate Professional" for tax purposes. It seems the only benifit is to be able to deduct passive rental losses from ordinary income.. Since I have no mortgages on any of my rentals I really don't have any paper losses on rentals. 

The downside to being classified as a real  estate professional (It seems) is that it makes all my rental property income "active" instead of "passive" therefore requiring Self Employment taxes to be paid on all rental income.  Although, there seems to be some court rulings in favor of "Real Estate Professionals"  that fight having to have all their rental income classified as active.  Any ideas about this? 

Seems like unless you have mortgage interest to deduct it's better to be a Non real estate professional.  

[Michael Plaks]

@Ray Slack

Benefit of REPS: deducting rental losses against ordinary income - correct

Drawback of REPS: self-employment tax - incorrect, no SE tax on rentals, no matter what

Being v "not being" REPS - incorrect, it's not a choice, you have to qualify to be eligible to claim it

No loss without mortgages - not necessarily, you may be able to generate large losses via cost segregation and accelerated depreciation