. $200 more than before.Although I have been a member of Bigger Pockets for awhile, I haven't quite figured out how to participate in a meaningful way.  

Since joining their group, we personally have been able to participate in 8 deals, 3 as passive investors and 5 on the GP side! 

I have rented to sec 8 participants before and have not had any issues on my very small sample size.

Meaning if you are already a W2 employee AND your employer offers a 401k plan...even if you have elected not to participate, you could not go and setup your own. 

@Phil M.There is a general rule allowing up to $25,000 of active participation(see below) rental real estate losses as a deduction against nonpassive income.You will be deemed to be actively participating if you make management decisions in a significant and bona fide sense.

I am also participating in networking events.

I currently have a LTR SFR property and I am looking to buy another property to operate as a STR, I want to operate this STR with a max stay of 7 days and materially participate to be able to use depreciation agains my W2 taxes.My question is this: As a real state investor either LTR or STR, if I travel say to the beach to look at properties that I might be interested in buying, do I get to deduct travel, stay, meal, gas/miles, etc expenses? 

Taylor, to be clear....it does Not matter what service, or how limited or how involved their participation is, you can Not legally pay a non licensed person a fee which is based on a deal closing.....period.

I had never been a part of an organization that didn’t encourage participants to be there for each other….until now.

I have participated in many local events to work towards creating a better city.