counting hours to claim real estate professional status

[Guy Yoes]

I am fully retired and have a small pension. I own 7 doors all of which are about 30-40 miles from my house. I am managing the properties myself and spend a good amount of time overseeing them (maintenance, cleaning, showing them and inspections). I have logged my milage and hours working but am still short of the 750 hours to claim RE professional. I have not included my drive time as I claim mileage.

Can I claim both mileage and time driving to reach the magic number to be a real estate professional? Can I include the hours outside of maintenance like doing the books,driving to make deposits at the back, picking up supplies at Lowes, etc?

Are there other things I can claim that I may not be aware of to count as business?