That sounds terrible, that I have thousands in PALs that keep getting pushed forward (unless I sell off a property) but if I sell some stocks off in 10 years, that counts as capital gain. 

Taking depreciation will not count against your income calculation.

Regardless of the unit count the property condition is critical. 

Exclusions.Certain work, such as time spent as an investor reviewing financial statements or participating in management decisions without active involvement, may not count towards the 750-hour requirement.As always, talk to your CPA to make sure that you meet the criteria above.If you do, there are many helpful benefits to you.

This profit doesn’t count for vacancies or cap ex, but you get the idea that there still are decent cash flowing properties to buy out there with 7% interest rates.

A blueprint is good, but when you say "Goal is to try for 8-10 Properties and try to leave my W-2 in 3-5 years" that often makes people rush to achieve the door count and in doing so, bad decisions are made.If you think more holistically about your journey, you will stress less.

As a buyer and someone who does wholesale when properties that don't fit our buy box come through our pipeline, I don't ever count other people's pockets as long as the deal makes sense to me, than why worry how much someone else is making on it.

Our unit count is bigger, but we are both mindful of buying very good deals and NOT outgrowing our infrastructure.The not so good news is that our models take a bit of time for results, not a ton.  

If you're a 5% owner for only part of the tax year, then only the services performed during that period count toward qualifying.Also, it's important to note that the Tax Court has held that merely being on calls doesn't meet the 750-hour requirement.

For starters it can be more difficult to find comps as there are often less multi fam trading than SFR of the same size and count.