However, this is a difficult qualification to meet, especially if you have a full-time job outside of real estate.Don’t worry if you aren’t able to qualify for REPS status, because there is another strategy that is referred to as a “loophole”, which is the STR strategy.Per Section 1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A): there are six exceptions where your rental property income is not automatically considered to be “rental activity” and thus may unlock the door for being able to offset these losses against your active income.The average customer use is seven days or less.The average customer use is 30 days or less and significant personal services were provided (for example, daily housekeeping).Extraordinary personal services are provided, regardless of the duration of customer use.The rental is incidental to a non-rental activity.The property is available during defined business hours for non-exclusive use by various customers.The property is used in an activity conducted by an S Corporation, partnership or joint venture in which the taxpayer holds an interest.If your property qualifies by meeting one of the exceptions above, the next step is to demonstrate material participation in the rental activity.

The bigger programs raised their rates ridiculously and provide a lot of generic outdated material. 

Include disposal of materials and debris management.

Internet chatter is a good starting point but most of my investors say the gold is going deal and taking relationships offline. 

Material participation.

Do you mean the piece of material (either steel or concrete) used for repair, or one spot of a house that needs to be lifted?

I am working on a product that will help small-medium size landlords launch and maintain Internet presence at a small monthly cost without spending big budget on custom development.It will include: SEO, custom domain, direct syncing with your property management software, syncing with QB. 

You don't want the customer to buy materials because they buy cheap materials or wrong materials.

There are probably many posts that contain similar information to this one, but I thought it would be of value to future and existing investors who are starting their journey.We recently completed rehabbing a duplex we bought for $93k and rehabbed for $75k (in retrospect, we could've negotiated a lower price 🤷‍♂️ - discussion for a different post), hitting an ARV of $190k when our target ARV was $170k.Two things that stood out for me that helped us secure a higher ARV that anyone can use in their next BRRRR were:1) Fix the property to be in the top 75th percentile -> To improve our success rate, we consulted with both our agent and our PMC on what kind of materials and finishes the best properties (highest ARV Comps and Rent Rates) had in the area.

That seems like a huge headache, managing an STR from out of state and meeting the material participation hours from OOS.