Hi @Joel OhTo be considered a Real Estate Professional you need to meet the threshold of 750 hours annually AND more than half your time.

(Though maybe twice so maybe a bad example.)But if you buy an identical house 10 miles out of primary city for 20% less and charge 20% less rent.

That is, more than 50 miles away, etc.   

This means if you need cash you can remortgage just one property to access the money instead of two, cutting fees and work in half.

Being 1,500 miles away when I bought this, I like to buy close to turn key as possible.

Understand, when you are trying to buy your first rental, from 1,500 miles away you need all the support you ca get, no one was supporting me except for my wife.

We have already raised half of the money for the community on bank notes with friends and family, we need another $150k before Aug 1st.

Just a heads up, if you need to count the rental income from your departing residence to qualify, FHA will not be an option for your new home unless you move over 100 miles away.

Kinda like running from the snatch man and he catches up with you in some remote town 600 miles away from home on a Sunday evening .

Accountants are in such demand, that the best are not even accepting clients half the time.The other problem I see often with accountants on here is that they specialize in larger investors, and have really high prices when you as a smaller investor do not need all the bells and whistles.Another thing I see is folks thinking they need to have a tax professional in their state.