How did you make the move from lending to participating in the deals?

You will need to qualify in order to participate in these programs (if offered) but that typically is done by providing a copy of the tenant farmer lease, or the owner attesting to growing/managing timber on the property.  

I'd volunteer to participate and would like to see any tips or inspiration from other small-medium self-managing landlords.Just brainstorming.  

I wanted a way to track my time working in real estate to prove "material participation" and be considered a real estate professional for tax deductions.  

I also work a FT W-2 job.Although I know that just following the Great Recession was the bottom of the last cycle and and some might argue that we're near the top now, I'm still interested and bullish about investing.Current deal:I participated in my local county's tax-defaulted property auction through bid4assests.com in April.

I'm all for networking and participating in local meetups, surfing the forums, listening to podcasts, and watching YouTube videos.

.- We have long term rentals that are being managed by a Property Management Company.I don't believe we current are setup to meet the Material Participation requirements but would love to hear creative ideas from the group of how I might be able to clear this hurdle.ThanksBrian

Nobody knows exactly how many people live in the US and where, we spend huge amounts of money on a Census and participating is voluntarily, so gigantic waste of money and the data from it is quite soft)

@Wayne BrooksThanks Wayne for participating in this conversation.

You don't have to be a real estate professional, but you do need to materially participate in the business.