REPS hours vs Material Participation Hours
What is the difference between REPS hours and material participation hours? My understanding is that material participation are hours that you are actively doing for your properties (day to day and trying to improve them). Is there a separation between REPS hours, where they are hours in real estate that count that deal with properties you did not acquire? My main concern is researching properties online (looking for properties to acquire). Searching online 1-2 hours per day would be 400-600 hours in research alone. Could I add that to my 500-600 material participation hours to be over the 1000 hours I need to be over my W2 job that I had the first half of the year?
It seems like some CPAs say yes and some say no. Any input? Thanks