You could just invest in a fund that should out performed what you are doing. 

If you're not meeting the 500 test, you will need to track the time of each person that performs work on the property. 

Summary: I’m currently working on a project to analyze rental market trends and help real estate investors, landlords, and property managers identify high-performing areas.

I think what you’re referring to is a checkbook IRA so you can bypass the custodian when performing transactions/investing and all assets/accounts will be held in the name of a special purpose LLC or Trust which is the instrument that gives you checkbook control.  

It’s a tax office, so I suspect they might be waiting to see how their business performs and the impact of technology before deciding.Thanks in advance for any advice or insights you can offer!

Handle Legalities:Make sure you have all the permits required for the task you intend to perform.

Sometimes the market changes or can't absorb the rents that they want, so they issue concessions to make it appear as if it's performing as intended.

I think an equally probable scenario is that we'll convert it to a rental, and then look into a 1031 exchange if we think we can trade into a better-performing asset. 

You will have to gather more accurate operating costs (vacancy loss, taxes, utilities, insurance, mgmt fees, maintenance, HOA) to best determine potential future performance.

Most are performing well and a couple of them are in the middle of dealing with evictions.