At least attend some city council meetings where it is on the agent, or talk to your councilperson for advice. 

But if you’re overseas or not actively involved, you likely won’t meet the criteria.

Section 8 tenants can be great, but the properties do have to meet specific housing standards, so factor in potential renovation costs to ensure compliance.

We sign a completely new lease with the new tenant after we make sure that they meet our rental standards.

You need to go to local real estate investor meetups and meet other young investors who have taken action so you can remove your roadblock.

This is not a "real estate rental income" activity as defined by the IRS, so whether you are a REP or not, you can take this benefit.All of this is separate from a QOZ Investment, which would require you to first recognize a capital gain from another source (say a stock sale), invest that gain, hold it in a Corporate or Partnership structure (likely partnership), meeting the substantial improvement qualifications of being a QOZB, and then yes, you get to avoid the depreciation recapture at the end of the 10 year hold period, at least for the portion of your investment attributable to the original gain that you invested in the project. 

You can meet local investors by registering to attend real estate events in your area: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-events-and-happenings6.

We do plan to meet with a legal expert but just wanted to sort of understand what we should be doing in general.  

I have looked at software like Hospitable and it looks great except it does not integrate with Furnished Finder. 

I may get 50-75 DMs, 20-25 fill out the form, 10-12 meet my criteria, 5-8 tell the truth, 1-3 come to showings lol.