And I think I've ruled out my original option #1, which was to sink all the proceeds from sale of my current house into next primary residence in Southern California. 

If I were a tenant I would feel disrespected and insulted if I was law abiding and following the rules and someone rolled up in my home with a weapon.

@Sharon McCants Yup around the 100-150k/unit mark can get you into a solid B area here that'll hit the 1% rule in most cases.

As a general rule I like to buy the worst house in an area and make it one of the best.

So, you may want to rule that one out.My understanding of Baselane is it's an online banking platform with some cash flow features rather than a property management software.You may want to check out Buildium.

To qualify for material participation, you generally need to meet either the 500-hour or 100-hour rule.

If you violate any of these rules you could blow up your IRA or 401k and the IRS could force you to distribute all of the assets in the IRA or 401k.

However, over the last 20 years there have been some favorable plms and rev rulings (particularly surrounding trusts) that owning a membership in an entity and converting that to tic still equated to the same level of ownership. 

Is anyone familiar with the rules in Jacksonville?

well. lower tax's generally helps RE and business as a whole. will have to see if they come up with something specific like the cost seg rules that are redy to sunset.