Question 1

What is the 750-hour requirement for Real Estate Professional status?

Accepted Answer

To qualify as an IRS Real Estate Professional (REP), you must spend more than 750 hours per year in real property trades or businesses where you materially participate, AND more than half of your total working hours must be in real estate trades or businesses. Both tests must be met in the same tax year.

Question 2

What is material participation in real estate?

Accepted Answer

Material participation means you're involved in the operations of your rental properties on a regular, continuous, and substantial basis. The IRS provides 7 tests — you only need to pass one. The most common are the 500-hour test (participate more than 500 hours during the year) and the 100-hour test (participate more than 100 hours and no one else participates more).

Question 3

How does REP status help with taxes?

Accepted Answer

Qualifying as a Real Estate Professional allows you to deduct rental real estate losses against your ordinary income (like W-2 wages), rather than being limited by passive activity loss rules. This is especially valuable when combined with cost segregation studies that accelerate depreciation, potentially creating significant paper losses that offset other income.

Question 4

Can my spouse help me qualify for REP status?

Accepted Answer

If you file jointly (MFJ), only one spouse needs to meet the 750-hour and 50% tests. However, for material participation, both spouses' hours can be combined when testing each property. This means your spouse's property management hours count toward material participation even if they don't independently qualify as a REP.

Question 5

What qualifies as "real estate professional" time?

Accepted Answer

Qualifying activities include property management and maintenance coordination, tenant relations, rent collection and bookkeeping, renovation and improvement oversight, and acquisition due diligence tied to a specific deal. Two entries people commonly log do not count. Education — seminars, courses, coaching, podcasts, books, general market research — is treated as work done in your capacity as an investor and is excluded under Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T(f)(2)(ii); the Tax Court has rejected logged seminar hours. Travel is split: driving between two of your properties, or from a unit to the supply store and back, is part of the work, but the Tax Court has repeatedly excluded the drive between your home and a property as commuting — even when the trip was made to clean or repair. Log travel on its own line so that if it is removed, the rest of your log still clears the threshold.

Question 6

What is the aggregation (grouping) election?

Accepted Answer

The aggregation election under IRC §469(c)(7)(A) allows a qualifying real estate professional to treat all interests in rental real estate as a single activity for material participation purposes. This means you can combine hours across those properties instead of meeting the tests property-by-property. It is all-or-none, and once elected it applies to all future years. Short-term rentals with an average guest stay of 7 days or less are not "rental real estate" under Treas. Reg. §1.469-9(b)(3), so they cannot be included in this election — they are tested on their own.

Question 7

How do short-term rentals (STR) differ from long-term rentals?

Accepted Answer

A short-term rental with an average guest stay of 7 days or less is not a "rental activity" under Treas. Reg. §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A). The rule that makes rentals automatically passive does not apply to it, so you do not need Real Estate Professional status. It is not automatically non-passive either — you still have to materially participate in the property. Most owners rely on the 500-hour test, or the 100-hour test: more than 100 hours, and no one else (including a property manager or cleaning crew) participates more. Long-term rentals are passive rental activities by default and generally require REP status plus material participation to treat losses as non-passive.

Question 8

Do I need to log every single activity?

Accepted Answer

Best practice is contemporaneous logging — recording activities as they happen. However, you can batch similar activities together. The key is having a reasonable, defensible record that shows the nature, duration, and date of your activities.

Question 9

Can I edit or delete time entries?

Accepted Answer

Yes. From the Log Time page, click any entry in your time log to edit or delete it. Your entry history is preserved for audit purposes, but you can make corrections as needed.

Question 10

How do I export my data for my CPA?

Accepted Answer

Go to Reports and generate a PDF report that includes a summary of total hours and REP qualification status, material participation analysis for each property, detailed time logs with dates and durations, and property information.

Question 11

Can I track multiple tax years?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Use the tax year selector in the sidebar to switch between years. Each year maintains its own time entries, property settings, and qualification status independently.

Question 12

Is my data secure?

Accepted Answer

Yes. REP Status uses industry-standard security: all data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest, we never share your data with third parties, authentication is handled by enterprise-grade infrastructure, and you can export or delete your data at any time.

Question 13

How do I manage my subscription?

Accepted Answer

Go to Settings → Subscription and click "Manage Subscription" to access the billing portal. From there you can update your payment method, view invoices, or change your plan.

Question 14

What happens if I cancel my subscription?

Accepted Answer

You retain full access until the end of your current billing period. Your data is preserved and you can export it anytime. If you resubscribe later, all your data will still be there.

Question 15

How do I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

To permanently delete your account and all associated data, go to Settings → Account → Delete Account. This action is irreversible. We recommend exporting your data first via the Reports page.

REPS FAQ

REP Qualification

Using REP Status

Account & Billing