Purchase price: $54,000 Cash invested: $12,000 My inaugural venture into real estate investing was a strategic buy-and-hold, and I'm proud to share that it's currently generating a steady cash flow.

I'm sure your parents are proud of you!

As a fulltime W-2 earner it may be hard to claim REPS status, but material participation, cost segregation, and other strategies could benefit you.

The following looks at hypothetical purchases, anecdotally and in relative isolation, meaning there may be a reason (for instance to generate large tax losses for "active participation" investors to offset other income) for some individuals to undertake a particular kind of purchase.

In 2022 I participated in a hard money loan and terms were for a year.

Attend workshops, read books, listen to podcasts, and participate in online forums like BiggerPockets.

The qualification is not material participation but active participation.

I view DSTs simply as a property with an address, a tenant, a lease, and a price - subject to the same performance conditions of the market, regardless of the fact that it's granted to a simple Trust for fractional investor participation.

If you haven't been tracking your material participation, done a cost segregation, or any other techniques specific to real estate and just want someone to file on your behalf then there might not be a huge difference between H&R and a specialized CPA.

This is huge, and you should be so proud.