The key is actually purchasing the goods or property in question, and not merely acting as a broker or agent.  

Hey @Ricardo Polanco - inspectors, whether it's announced or unannounced, should not be forcing their way into your property. 

The 500-hour rule means spending at least 500 hours actively managing your rental property, which could include things like tenant communication, maintenance, and bookkeeping.You can also group multiple properties together as one “activity” to make reaching the hours easier.

It's not like people won't know that the property isn't in a flood zone; if they finance it through traditional financing then the lender would most likely require that they carry flood insurance. 

Facebook groups can be a valuable resource for discovering properties.

Buying more property 10 to 15 years ago.

@Philip MurphyYou would need to have the taxes paid and payoff his mortgage for you to receive clear title and title insurance.All debts on the property must be satisfied to provide clear title

. $20K in reserves isn't a lot if something goes horribly wrong and there are damages if you default and he takes the property back.

I have made some investments in Canada and now i would like to expand my horizon to cash flow properties in the US.

Imagine you bought a property for $2M.The land (excluding any structures) is valued at $400K.Since land is not depreciable in the eyes of the IRS, we subtract the land value from your purchase price to get your depreciable basis.Your depreciable basis is simply where a cost seg engineer starts from when allocating your eligible assets into either 5, 7, or 15 year property.In the scenario above, your starting basis would be $1.6M since your basis = your purchase price - the land value.Having an accurate land value is essential to getting your depreciation/bonus depreciation calculations right.This is the starting point for any cost seg study that you do.