Nope just having the license does not allow you to get tax treatment like a licensed agenttalk to your CPA  I would tag some BP CPA's as this is an easy question but its tax season and they are all busy I suspect.you have to actually work in the industry a certain amount of hours per month or week.. you don't have to actually make any or much money but you do have to put effort and work in to take the deductions. 

You just have to evaluate what areas you are willing to accept risk and put a value on your time and effort versus hiring the work out. 

I am aware there are infinitely creative ways of financing given enough time and effort, but I feel the options available to someone who has no steady income seem too risky and cut my margins for error more than I would like.

More to the point is that the cost and effort to maintain that kind of asset protection simply isn't worth it at every stage.

Lost a lot of time and effort.

As a good faith effort I would have repaired whatever spot damage was done by your dog with the same grass variety as is currently in the ground (if it can be identified) such that the lawn looks as uniform as possible (or at least as uniform as when you moved in).

If you're going to go "all in" on REI and leave school, you're better off focusing your efforts on 1 or 2 avenues. 

Id suggest adding cold calling to your efforts. 

Make every effort to protect yourself and your investors.

Never ceases to amaze how taking the time and effort to put in good due-diligence work can pay huge dividends.