I will not comment as to the tax laws and underlying rules - that is a discussion you can have with your tax advisor who presumably you are paying to help you.What I will do is provide practical and business guidance on tracking time.Firstly, there are apps available that can assist with time tracking where you can specifically detail your time, who you met with, etc.

Directed marketing to pre-foreclosures, a website with seo, networking, driving for $$, go to some local meetings.

It’s standard practice and an essential safeguard for landlords.Trust your instincts and treat this as a non-negotiable policy.

If the tenant has low net worth, a court judgment is practically worthless.Taking a week to vet a tenant can save months of headache.

Curious if this is normal practice or in other management agreements people have signed? 

A person who has spent his 2000 to 4000 minimum CPA practice hours doing foreign currency conversions at Deloitte for a Belgian energy company may not know the first thing about real estate or anything else.

There is a storage deal that is actively being raised for over there that you can practice analysis on.

Help me do better with SEO, pricing and pulling more bookings. 

They can fine you for practically anything and they want all the STRs to be banned from the city.

In practice rents will be slightly lower and sometimes slightly lower.