The North Georgia mountains sound like a great market for short-term rentals—especially with all the tourism and natural attractions in that area.Since you're high-income W-2 earners, definitely look into how short-term rentals can qualify for material participation to help offset your active income—especially if one of you is willing to take the lead on managing it.

What I’m looking for - Buy and hold property- Long term tenants (ideally vacant at purchase) - Single family home - Class B to A (likely B for more cash flow opportunity) neighborhood - Opportunity to add value so am more than open to rehab - Cash flow as primary focus- An area with comparatively low risk of natural disaster - Of course somewhere with growing population and jobs and less than average crime.

That's not to say you don't know what you're doing -- naturally, we don't know here the particulars of what you've got going on.

If this is your first transaction of this exact nature, maybe a test run of one house would be wise.

It doesn’t change the nature of rental income for self-employment tax purposes.If your accountant is insisting that being a REP means filing rental income on Schedule C and paying SE tax, that’s a misinterpretation of the tax code.

A little patience now might give your wife that early retirement plan with fewer gray hairs later.Keep grinding!

No matter how hair brained or never gonna work it was, we tried, because a a million to 1 shot is better than a guaranteed nothing. 

You are naturally smarter than most but also may be not much of an outside the box thinker. 

The bigger question is around the nature of the deal.

In fill lots with no hair on them 9 to 12 months start to finish My 90 lot project about 5 years from dirt to completion.