Seems worth it though, so I'm not running around trying to piece things together an build my own empire of employee and agents, etc.

I've set this up for some of my employees who prefer gmail.

Generally your hours working at BP as a W-2 employee would not be part of RE professional hours unfortunately.For those who are RE professionals, gain on sale of rental real estate is still capital gains and still avoids self employment taxes just the same for those tho are not REPS so there is no downside to being a REP in the example you provided Scott. 

Here are a few alternative rental strategies:Medium-Term Rentals: Platforms like Furnished Finder connect you with traveling professionals, such as nurses and corporate employees, looking for 30-90 day stays.

The LLCs pay the PM company anywhere from 7-8% of the revenue and the PM company oversees the assets and employees my staff.

I'm a property owner on BP and a W2 employee (nothing involved with real estate).

I always wonder what the heck a zillow employee does.

You will need two years of your 1099 documented income to qualify for a loan as a 1099 employee, both years of taxes complete for them to formally pre-approve you most likely.You need to bank as much money as possible.

I have letters from their future employees which I'm verifying today and they both submitted to the credit/background check and passed.

We are both 1099 employees and don't have the bank statements or tax returns to get a mortgage anyway.