The hours that qualify must be substantially all hours and have a legitimate impact on the rental activities.Activities that generally count: showing the property for rent, taking tenant applications & screening tenants, preparing & negotiating leases, cleaning & preparing the units for rent, repairs, and improvements, managing the construction, purchasing supplies & materials, inspecting the property, responding to tenant complaints & inquiries, collecting & depositing rents, evicting tenants, writing & placing advertisements, and working on your websiteActivities that don't count: education & research, investor-type activities, and travel timeQualifying to offset your wife’s non-passive income (W-2, 1099, etc.) with rental losses (that may or may not include depreciation expense) has nothing to do with whether or not the investment property is owned by LLC.

Many companies on the web still allow you run credit without the inspection, in violation of those regulations.The three companies listed above are legitimate sources that comply with the regulations.

The bottom line is this: if you have earned self-employment income - you can legitimately establish Solo 401k plan.

It seems the legitimate ones want to charge me $3K to give me a bid.

Account Closed stated, all veils can be pierced, just depends upon if you are truly running it as a legitimate entity or just a shell to hide assets (among other things).Also, as David stated, the issue regarding invalidating your title insurance policy by using a different entity can be easily resolved in a title exception letter drafted by your attorney prior to closing.Finally, I agree with @Crystal Brooks.

But what if I did what I could to legitimize it as a farm property, even though it's not.

It is one thing when someone makes a legitimate error and corrects it but this is wrong!  

It's a legitimate transfer like a sale which is why it can also trigger the due on sale clause with a lender.

He was interested if I can make a company LLC or S-CORP that is established here in the states. he didn’t want to work with an individual I understand, he wanted something legitimate.

Also, the parent company of Loopnet continues to use the court system to kill off any legitimate competitors.