Or conversely maybe you have NO interest in being an active participant at all.

I suggest having this conversation with an attorney.

Material Participation in a Real Estate Trade or Business.This is pretty straightforward but you must materially participate in a real property trade or business, such as development, redevelopment, construction, reconstruction, acquisition, conversion, rental, operation, management, leasing, or brokerage.2.

Super conversational, haha.2. 

Here are a few recommendations for you:Read Beginner’s Guide http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing and check out BP Podcast.If you wish to tag someone in the conversation on the forum, type @ followed by their name and then select that person below.

Conversely, if I don't BRRRR and add these properties 1 at a time skipping the last R then I could reach the same cashflow goal with 6 homes.

I'd be happy to have a conversation. 

You can search the forums and look at the current conversation that has three pages full of conflicting advice.

Unfortunately the additional fee disproportionately impacts smaller projects (I recently paid the same acceleration fee for  $600,000 SF renovation as I just did for a $2.5M school building conversion). 

If you are identifying individual private money lenders, you can consider having a conversation with them about using their IRA, previous employer 401ks, or other retirement accounts.