that's all I have done my entire adult life since I was first licensed at 18.. there is a difference in being a retail real estate sales person and using a license to further your investing goals.Its not an easy business by any means to be a retail agent and there is a high burn out rate.. not as high as wholesalers but its at least 50%...If your an ACTIVE investor I cant see how you can do without it.. if your fix and flipping in my mind its mandatory.its about 2k a year to keep sometimes less and If your business does not allow that or like some say the cost is to high then in my mind your not really in the business its a pittance to spend to have access to all the info and be in the club.if your goal is to be a lifelong landlord then work for a commercial brokerage that specializes in cash flow real estate just being there will open up doors.if by chance your very good at sales and have a very large warm market you may shock yourself in how much money you can make just in transactional real estate.. 

I agree with @Russell Brazil - "How many years have you maintained an active real estate license?"

Quite honestly, all this will do is complicate things for you (as it did for me)...essentially, since they are both single member LLCs, you'll basically have to report the separate activities on two separate Schedule Cs for income tax purposes...

Tenant shall be responsible for damages caused by his negligence and that of his family or invitees and guests.

The house has a single family 4/1 and a small guest house 1/1.

Their is definitely a lot of activity with owner occupants purchasing.

I have an RE agent license even though I don’t work actively as an agent, hence I know what overall prices are in the neighborhood.

If you and your wife file a joint return then from the federal perspective you and she (or rather the tax return that reports the activity of the properties - all of them both from during your marriage and before your marriage) are one and the same tax payer.

We are from out of state, so our agent will need to be actively involved in our due diligence process.  

If you take SD, you dont itemize, but the expense related to rental activity has nothing to do with itemize deduction.Your rental income is taxed if you have net rental income. ( Rents- expenses- depreciation).