Is there a certain number of hours per year devoted to it according to IRS?

All of these areas have many properties that are devoted to the vacation rental market that command very high dollar rents during the peak months of the year.

You devote SOME time marketing.

Most of the class failed the exam.Make sure you are going to actually devote the time to following up the next steps necessary to actuate whatever you are going to learn.Understand the difference between a low cost seminar and a higher dollar workshop.

There is simply no good reason for so much effort being devoted to figuring out taxes.

Also when you want to make 10k per month do you plan to leave your job and have some time to devote to remotely running your real estate investment or do you want to be completely hands off?

They certainly shouldn't be charging more than 10 minutes (1/6 hour) for an e-mail, but law firms are all about "billable hours" so they must bill for any time they devote to clients.I don't think it would hurt when in conversation with him next time to ask about it in a polite manner.

Agreed on time devotion relative to income!

You can always find someone like myself to do it right and at the reasonable rate so that you can have more time to devote to investing and management. 

I also devoted the last 1/3 of my BP book to this topic.