An idea we have is, I am burnt out from W2 life, and wife makes great money (+$300k) , and I could take the year to repair/renovate, manage, rent, repeat the units in the MF qualifying for REPS status (50%, 750hrs, material participation, etc). 

Jobs that started less than 2 weeks ago and barely make your income requirement for rent. 

I am not aware of Lane's participation on any BiggerPockets podcasts - it is possible, as I have not reviewed all 1,000 of them, that he has appeared on a BiggerPockets show, but I was not able to find one from a simple search.

I’m also at a life stage, where I’d prefer to just live with my partner and not rent out individual rooms in my unit.When I move out, the rental income would sometimes just barely cover the mortgage and taxes (usually not even insurance).

Also, your wife simply would need to "materially participate".

They cut operations staff down to bare-bones, cancelled over 1,000 listings with no notice, and moved entirely to a revenue-share model (which is why they eliminated those 1,000 listings, as they were non-revenue share). 

Most multi participant retirement plans are Federally exempt from creditor judgements; IRAs are Federally protected as a bankruptcy exemption up to $1,512,350; some states (Texas, Florida) extend this protection to the full amount held in the IRA or any other retirement account.5.

What happens if someone does not participate in a capital call?

Additionally, there may be grant money or other funding programs available to you.Finally, if you get involved with a local real estate group you can likely find other investors that might want to participate in the deal with you.

Wishing all the participants a  happy and fruitful time and networking luck:)