"Real Estate Professional" Loss Questions

[Mel Selvidge]

My husband and I purchased a vacation rental property four hours from where we live in January.  It was gutted when we got it.  Working with a contractor who rented it during the renovation, we got it remodeled, furnished, and ready for vacation rental by Memorial Day.  It has rented well, but because of the late start and pile of deductions associated with buying a whole home's worth of furnishings at once, I strongly suspect it will show a loss at the end of the year.  I'm looking at getting a second vacation rental property that would definitely be a loss as there is little time left to recover initial costs.  

My questions:

I've read that activities need to be "grouped" to count together as activities of a "real estate professional" for tax losses.  What is the acceptable procedure for "grouping" activities at different properties?

If I incur a loss on my RE business, can the income only be subtracted from other income that I earned, or can it be subtracted from my husbands' (married filing jointly)?

Is this loss something that could trigger the AMT if we weren't already liable for it?  If we do get the AMT, is the loss still deductible?

Thanks for your insights and time!