Seriously, though, one of my bucket list items is to have an STR near Notre Dame and another near Lambeau Field ; )

First the IRS divides income & losses into three buckets: earned, portfolio, and passive. 

Build to rent is popular in areas with growing populations, causing housing shortages.There are less surprises with new construction than renovating older homes.Won't work in most Rust Bucket cities.

There are huge price incentives at different Loan to Value ratios and with higher credit scores, so jumping to the next bucket might give you an edge.3.

Used to own a skid steer but needed it less and shipped it down to Belize for our Teak plantation.We use both a Snow Bucket and a Snow Pusher. 

Real estate professional status with material participation in rental activities is how one can end up having "active" syndication losses - but doesn't sound like the scenario you have.For the lending, that to me does sound like regular old interest income - for IRS purposes portfolio / investment income, which is neither Active nor Passive - it is it's own bucket.

Compared to what you did which was househack a small  multi and the absolute best way for someone to buy their first property full stop.while there will be sub to deals out there they will a a very tiny fraction of the RE market as a whole so your fishing in a bucket instead of the lake..

I swear, it's like the damn thing KNEW the absolute worst moment to kick the bucket--not a good scenario.

So, its a different bucket than my long term rentals. 

Or buy new...generally 100% agree. with both of you; especially for project that are going to land in our investment bucket I honestly have a hard time seeing common instances where this much work will make any sense whatsoever.