At this point my focus is on getting educated about real estate investing by way of practical advice (BP, books, audio, etc.) and experience (mentoring/apprenticeship).

@Eric Mulhern   Sounds like what your business practice entails from the DRE standpoint is that you are selling RE without a license..

I have been in the Charlotte area for about 12 years and while I have read many books on REI, I feel like I don't have as much practical information as I may need. 

You've done a lot of research on SEO techniques, but what have you actually implemented?

I was a franchise broker for several years and still have my license- although I do not practice at this time. 

The only scenario I could see schedule A is if you held onto the house as an asset and portfolio investment and didn't intend on it generating any rental income-- it sat idle for example, no renters, waiting for a quick flip, etc.Those are my thoughts you might find some other advice or direction on this board from those practicing CPA's that have direct experience.

It is fairly typical that a loan for sale has undergone some form of loss mitigation practice and failed or deemed unworthy.

I would love to start up a dental practice anywhere that's a home run -- get back my investment money ASAP.  

If not, this sounds a lot like practicing as a RE broker without a license.

I worked for a company selling SEO services to get people information ranked higher and it was an entire team dedicated to creating the content to get the pages higher on the search engines.