These expenses can create a paper loss, which may offset other passive income or carry forward to future years.If you qualify for Real Estate Professional Status (REPS) or actively manage a Short-Term Rental (STR), the losses can be applied against your active W-2 or business income, reducing your overall tax liability.

Is it good or bad with a lot/little REI activity?

I’m not looking to be an active/public realtor, just need a place to hold my license.For context, I currently hold an active HI real estate license in good standing and have strong networks on both Molokai and Maui.

That is, of course, the major problem when you use cap rate.

Many are looking to retire or shift out of active management, especially as interest rates rise.From what I’ve read in Bloomberg, Austin's market in 2025 remains highly competitive but still has opportunities in older neighborhoods and suburban areas.

As Account Closed mentioned, the first question is to decide if you want to invest actively or passively. 

I have active leads with wholesalers and other agents, but quite frankly their deals are not good.

Quote from @Christine Gordon: Quote from @Roi Azoulay: This firm is known to advertise fake distressed properties all over NY and reach out the the actual owner w/attempt to get listing agreement, Unfortunately they are still active and keep doing this for many years and no other website/mls does anything about it. 

From what I’ve read in Bloomberg, markets like Omaha and Phoenix are seeing steady investor activity.

Lastly, majority of of liens are posted in Judgement Lien Documents(JLD).