While this may exempt it from being classified as a rental activity, active participation remains a requirement, necessitating compliance with three tests: spending 500 hours on the property, dedicating at least 100 hours (and more than any other participant), and performing all the necessary work needed.Additionally, long-term viability and consideration of depreciation recapture are important concerns.

Material participation tests are the rules the IRS uses to determine if you worked on your short term rental business on a regular basis during the year. 

Cash flow, we don't buy any properties less than 50% of what they're worth, all our properties we own make positive cash flow in a modest way and these tow items are deal breakers if they don't pass that's test for us on str.

Be careful, that 100 hour test includes language along the lines of "100 hours AND more then anyone else".

Bring a marble to test the floors.

I collected MTR comps and ran the numbers, and found that I might get an extra 15%-20% from a MTR, but I'm not sure if the vacancy rate I plugged in was reasonable (I'm in a mid-size city and my properties are close to Universities, hospitals, and other things that attract MTR tenants, so hopefully I'd have low vacancy...but I like to play it safe with my numbers, so I try to allow for a good bit of vacancy)... ...plus, all the comps I collected were just listings this month, and I don't know how much they're affected by seasonality, so my rent data might not be super accurate... ...maybe I'll give it a test run with one unit that's opening up in May, and see how it goes...

They just can't imagine that sometimes things just don't go your way - that wasn't on the test!

With FHA loans, there is a self sufficiency test.

To get an NMLS license, you need to take relevant courses and there is a difficult test to get a NMLS license that more than half of the people fail that take it on their first try.A lender doesn't need a license to do DSCR loans in many states but if they have a NMLS license in any state then they have a license they are going to try to keep and be better educated in lending overall. 

It's rewarding and encouraging to see an experiment like this pass it's first test.