Since I am super new to this, I do have a few questions:By testing the list, do you mean what data am I pulling (absentee owner, tired landlord, etc)Testing my mailer, do you mean trying different messaging?

Has anyone tried it? 

We also tried getting a personal heloc, but can't do that on a property held in an LLC.  

To try to answer this myself I read this on their website (#8 in the list):Choosing to compound in the 3-year, 12% targeted PPR fund increases your overall annualized return to 14.3%.I also read through the compounding examples in PPR's offering.

Going over maps of known repairs with contractors showed that there were a few houses where people tried to have piers installed and ran out of money before hitting stable soil, others in the hyper local area did have to go to 100+ ft.  

It is going to be an uphill battle trying to prove material participation with a property manager.

@Bryan Stengel, I think alcohol has been the tough one with the STRs, not sure about if you need license( hopefully someone will chip in ) , however there  always the liability part including but not limited to offering alcohol to people who are trying to quit etc.

Real estate investing has been a passion of mine for time with my mother also having invested early on where I likely have gotten the love and desire to follow similar foot steps.I have taken last 6 months to educate myself and currently own a single family home as primary residence and would like to expand to multi family properties (2-4 units) for additional stream of income, not to mention potential tax benefits for long-term investing.Based on current living situation, I have a fair amount of equity established in my primary residency along with having enough cash to either pay off house completely or use towards investing in a multi family property.Given that I'm the sole source of income for our household with my wife being the home maker for our two kids under 2, trying to weigh out risks with getting started now or perhaps waiting. 

For in person connections try some local real estate meetup groups.

Try interviewing at least three managers.1.