The second piece is whether or not you pass the Material Participation Tests found in IRC 469 and the third piece is whether your participation rises to the level of Substantial Services (think hotel, B&B).4) My CPA Says I can't deduct a loss that was generated! 

It goes deeper than that.NYC Liberal policies, including strong tenant protections, increases the risk of failure so much that the risk far outweighs the rewards.Financial ruin is just around the corner for the small Mom and Pop Property Investor that it doesn't make sense for them.The Tenants will have free Attorneys that are bent on delaying eviction cases so long that it stretches into years while Mom and Pop suffer from lack of rental income and still have to pay all the bills and do the management.Additionally, the increase in homeless living rough in the streets due to Sanctuary laws causing a lack of shelter beds, then evicting shelter residents after 30 days creating more homelessness, policies that tie up the Police's ability to arrest perpetrators, etc. only causes Mom and Pop to sell out at large discounts to larger Landlords who are capable to use Economies of Scale to eek out a profit.These larger Landlords will eventually turn a much higher profit as the pendulum will eventually swing towards the middle when the NYC Voting population eventually realizes that it's not a conspiracy of the Rich that's causing the Wealth Gap to increase.It's the same liberal laws that encourage people to become lifelong tenants, small Entrepreneurs (including Property Owners and small Mom and Pop Businesses) to be destroyed, and Rents to rise astronomically as housing becomes scarer even when the population declines by as much as 7% in the last several years. 

Markets with balanced property prices and strong rental demand will be key.While rising prices and interest rates may impact cash flow, with careful deal analysis and a focus on areas with good appreciation potential, it's achievable.

For 2500 of the mailings he predicted the market would fall in the next 3 months, for the other 2500 his prediction was that it would rise.  

Squatters are on the rise.

Granted, they had the benefit of relatively low purchase prices relative to rental income; low interest rate loans they were able to refinance into and (generally) rising house values.  

But I'm not going to rise through the ranks, I'm soley working there part-time or full-time to make my first income, this isn't my sole path.

Despite current unemployment rates maintaining below 5%, the recent rise from 3.8% to 4.2%(recently revised to 4.1%) is significant, especially when considering wage growth adjusted for inflation.Over the last few years, the median household income has dropped by 7.2% when adjusted for inflation (and this isn't even considering volatile food and energy prices), a troubling trend given that inflation has outstripped income growth.

But the ROE is even more drastically worse compared to the past as the value of them continues to rise but income has not.  

It is not uncommon for rates to rise this close to an election, then adjust back down right after.