DM me - Happy to share learnings so far and give you an agent referral.

Michael,All good questions and good to ask up front to avoid issues down the road.

You must work at least 750 hours per year in a qualified RE business.So most people who have high-earning W-2 jobs outside of real estate won't qualify.But the unique thing about RE pro status is that even if you don’t qualify but your spouse does, you can both file jointly and claim the losses from your RE investments to offset your other active income together.It's an incredibly powerful benefit if you do meet the criteria.

We plan to update a couple of the units, and two of the current tenants' leases expire at the end of the month.

Husband and I are considering buying his parents' home and I have some questions about this and would love any feedback on how to minimize hassle and our costs.

And it turns out they are okay with the wildfire risk and high value. 

My dad is a long time investor and I've picked a few things up from him, but the majority of my knowledge has come from consuming mass amounts of books, podcasts, and reading the forums here on BiggerPockets. 

I’m a fairly new investor, currently with only one STR/MTR duplex in Indiana, and I’m looking to develop new skills in order to improve my personal income to help expedite a second rental investment.I am a touring musician, and also have 5+ years of bookkeeping experience for one of my small businesses, and I run the books for my one duplex as well.

Day One and I can already say this community is as legit and good as it gets.

Real estate agent and property manager based of Seattle myself.