what i just noticed is that both statutes don't even mention ownership of the property. what they say is if someone is doing this for another or for oneself. if somone is brokering then either the broker asked the seller to sell their property or vise versa. 

I see the meaning in terms of say hiring someone to hang/finish drywall who gets it done faster, better and turns the unit around more quickly vs doing it oneself and not having to pay a contractor, but paying oneself $4.50/hr and having a finished job that looks south of awesome.  

In general, what distinguishes a "primary residence" from an home purchased with the intent to flip?  

The only limitation is that it's hard/ impossible to look on past calanders as well as to distinguish between real occupancy and owner's blackout dates...

I am not familiar with any process to protect oneself against this.

I am looking for ways to distinguish myself from traditional wholesalers that put the house under contract before they have a buyer lined up, and that beat the sellers price down to the bare minimum. 

Zillow's algorithm did a poor job distinguishing these less desirable homes and overpaid.

@Carlson Driver It's important to distinguish to what kind of taxes you're referring. 

And several more years prior to that while things were being codified.Since DSTS are single pieces of real estate a lot of clients will spread their proceeds across several DSTs in several sectors - one multifamily, one self storage, one supply chain property, etc. 

For example, a big criteria investors look for is monthly rates/cash flow/cash on cash (however you want to distinguish).