I have a hard time imagining that I would not meet the qualification of "Material Participation in Real Estate" as a real estate professional, which would allow me to apply the bonus deprecation toward my earned income as a real estate professional.

Aware of any networking events/groups I should try to participate in?

I was told that offerings that we see on sites like fundrise may be inexperienced or not the best syndicators that may prey on inexperienced investors who don't have the ability to participate in syndications because of a lack of substantial capital and that capable syndication operators would not resort to posting on sites like that because they have a group of investors that trust them and they don't have to share a fee to the site.

I am more than proud to be Michele Paulakovich Belman and if you knew anything about me you would already know this. 

Ironically, before the last modifications of the forums were implemented, BP invited the main contributors to each forum to participate in a conference call with CEO Scott Trench to give feedback about the changes.

I had NEVER participated in an auction and just submitted an offer $15k less than the original ask.

If I start running it as STR starting in June of this year, do I have sufficient time to meet material participation?

I am always looking to expand, but very proud of the work I've done on this one so far.

I met the Material Participation requirements that year, and took our taxes to our preparer with the expectation of a refund. 

@Ariel GonzalezHey don’t despair.It’s a tough market out there.In most cases, seller pricing expectations are still out of line with the current cost of debt.I’m proud of you that you just didn’t buy something to buy something - that takes discipline.It’s important that your first deal is a success or at least not a train wreck.I’d encourage to start small finding a 6 to 10 unit building and buy that with a few friends.