Your strategy takes advantage of your employment cash flow and ability to control discretionary spending.  

I have a W2 and can survive off it, so I never really needed my RE profits to spend on myself.

I would spend a few bucks on nice ads in local magazines and/or do flyers in areas that are higher income. 

I wouldn't spend another moment of my personal time on it. 

You are like many others who are getting started and unfortunately your generation is screwed because of the amount of spending is older generations have done and put the debt on you which also has led to record inflation.All you can do now is plan for the future and don’t force things but invest wisely when the time is right.

Under this rule, if you spend at least 100 hours on the property and no one else exceeds your time spent, you can qualify as materially participating.

So, instead of spending the time to move the stuff out of the apartment, we offered it as furnished.

I understand that starting out, depending on how fast you want to build your portfolio, you could spend a lot of time at it.For those with established investment portfolios, how much time is required to maintain it?

After spending 16,000 he's paying 2850.

More difficult after spending money on a rehab, but it might be worth an appointment with an attorney.