Basic services like garbage collection don’t qualify.Material participation: Owners must pass one of the seven material participation tests, such as:You spend more than 500 hours working in your short-term rental business.You carry out all the necessary tasks to run the business yourself.You work more than 100 hours in the business, and no one else contributes more time than you do (this is often considered the best and easiest test to meet).

It is likely the debt may not be collectable as the deadbeat clients are keeping everything on an under the table cash basis.

This was not the case of vandals burning abandoned buildings, nor the case of landlords burning building to collect insurance.  

Prior to anyone submitting an application ensure you share your rental criteria clearly ( i.e. credit score, your preference on acceptance of rental collections, evictions, felonies, misdemeanors, pets etc. ) as well as sharing any additional charges ( i.e. monthly pet rent, pet deposit(s), security deposits, admin fees etc. ) people unqualified will usually "walk" as this stage and that is where you will save time. 3.

My brain want's to automatically assume rents were not collected, not that they were just sitting on your $$$$ because that, wow, that's a BIG problem and a VERY bad sign of things if that's the case. 

Can I still serve my tenant a Notice to quit since I have collected the last month’s rent.  

What sites/software does anyone recomentd to collect rent, anyone have like a template of an excell sheet I can use to get organized?

Collectively, they are known as "Turnkey" rental providers. 

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Is it a fully rehabbed property with high quality tenants paying top dollar, or is it a run down apartment with below average rents that you collect rent on and put as little cash into it as you can.