Best strategy to be an RE professional

[Arif Siddiqi]

A question that may have been come up many times before but I will ask it anyway, what’s the best strategy to be considered as RE professional for tax purposes while maintaining a full time W2 income. Just to provide a context, me and wife own 5 rental income properties while sixth one is in closing stages. I work full time as engineer and earns w2 income and my wife is a stay home mom. I want to have the best tax strategy that can maximize our take home income by taking deductions from my salary along with rental income that may not be otherwise possible due to my high w2 income. One possible way I can think off is for my wife and possibly me to get RE license so that we can show 750 hours each year as RE professionals and eventually claim deductions even from my salary. Will really appreciate comments and suggestions even if now you consider me to be a complete idiot :)