Outside of investing actively in real estate, another route you could take is becoming a private / hard money lender.

Generally for tax "activities" are reported by "trade or business." 

I don't hear from them that they're actively searching for my next investment.

Maybe if they were short term rentals of some other more active business model you might get away with it.

Do you want to be active or passive?

So, I have total respect and gratefulness for active duty and veterans for their service to our country. 

If you want to "personally utilize and keep" a property and don't care about the location or the price, then my first assumption is you want a place to make meth or some similar activity.  

You might want to do that anyway and not listen to me.Though I see it on this board all the time, lending is not a do-it-yourself activity, Reese.

An active ownership in a property or portfolio of real estate is much more like a small business than it is like a passive investment. 

If you are IN active Contract to Purchase an MLS listed property with an ASSIGNABLE purchase agreement, where you have put up EMD funds and have an active open escrow and you now advertise FOR SALE  the "assignable interest you have in a purchase agreement" (not the property) with language in the AD, Marketing Flyers or CL- Craig's List Ad's  such as; "We are selling / transferring our rights in an existing purchase agreement..."