How long you hold may be examined from the market demand and the expected final sale, work backwards to your buy date, if the market is hotter, you might buy and hold to avoid market risks.

Should you be classified as a dealer, you are deemed to be in an active trade or business and will be taxed at ordinary income rates plus self-employment tax.When you look at how the IRS examines a "dealer" one of the most important issues appears to be the taxpayer’s volume, frequency and consistency of real estate sales.

I just read through the post where you examine the code of ethics and that is the aspect that I was most worried about.

I will take my state exam in a couple of weeks and wanted to focus on short sales.Are there any agents here who specialize in REO/short sales that can tell me what my first steps should be besides reading the forums and the books ( i am doing this already).I want to know what you first did when you got your license, did you get any certifications after?  

BTW, the By-Laws, the Minutes of Meetings and the Books of the corporation are open to all owners with reasonable notice, by law, any reluctance to give or allow you and the owner to examine the records should be a red flag that something is cooking!

It's nice to have a clean slate to work from and it will give you a chance to examine the joists and address any issues with the framing. 

I then went with FDIC as an examiner.

I am taking my Broker's Exam in CA in a week.

Maybe hold out for a few weeks and then examine each buyer for potential thoughtfully and carefully.Buyers do not want you doing repairs because sellers selling usually do the cheapest thing possible and dump the property to the buyer.

I took the course and completed my final state brokerage exam in about 3 weeks with this system and had no issues.