If it’s not stated - and in my opinion, this is a material fact - my intuition says that they hope you’ll never challenge them, especially in court.

Its not unusual that your insurance premium jumped, but I’m wondering if the jump was so drastic only because you switched to a landlord policy, or if its because your insurance policy is renewing and taking into account increased costs of labor and materials.

That, a few podcasts, a few select books, and a couple of subscriptions choke full of info material (less than 100$/month), maybe a couple mentorship programs (for less than 2K/year), and a lot of action on your part and you'll be a lot better than paying $$K for "gurus".To rephrase, do you have more money than you know what to do with or an urgent need to get it to work for you, together with a lot of time on your hands ready to take massive action?

I believe my wife and I pass all the test under REPS and material participation.

I mean material as recently as late 2022 was totally off-base-- the real estate rookie bootcamp, you had porfer Morby on here, the Carl twins that promote STR as recession proof, the list goes on.

I'm also open to suggestions on other (post covid hopefully) reading material, podcasts and resources. 

Materials won’t be that much a couple hundred maybe.  

Her work in this way again is not influenced at all by if it is an LLC in her name, your name, or both - it is based on actual hours worked.IF and AFTER you meet the above tests, you need to prove that you materially participate in your RENTAL trades or businesses, generally this is at least 500 hours per year, but there are other tests as well.If you qualify for all of the above, now you can use tax losses from rental real estate to offset W-2 income. 

If you're passing along cleaning fees to the guests, then they shouldn't have such a material impact on your profits.I'm speaking from experience a little bit.

You need to get a quote from a local handyman or contractor.Not sure about every state, but in the states where I invest - If you do the work yourself you can only deduct the cost of materials.