What’s the minimum a partner needs to do in an LLC (owning rental property) to be considered active enough to avoid it being labeled an investment security under the Howey Test?

I’ve been working on a simple underwriting tool for small investors who don’t want to spend an hour in Excel every time they look at a property.Here’s how it works:Drop in the basics (price, rent, expenses, loan terms)In 30 seconds, it spits out NOI, Cap Rate, DSCR, Cash-on-Cash, and a simple traffic-light recommendation (Green / Yellow / Red)You get a clean one-page summary you can actually use to make a quick “go/no-go” callI’m testing it out with real investors now.

Most of them offer free trials, so it might be worth testing a couple out before locking into one.Hope that helps, and best of luck as you grow your portfolio. 

If your average stay is ≤7 days and you meet the material participation test, you can still treat it as an active business.

I’ve tested a few, but Baselane has been the easiest for small portfolios.

We did something similar and rented it to friends and people we knew in order to do a test run and have them comment on what needs to be fixed or changed.You should be able to claim the entire year for both cost seg and depreciation.

I do  have a good paying job that helps me pay my primary residence, but I like to plan for rainy days.My ultimate goal is have enough rental income to live off of, so I know conventional wisdom says I need to buy more rentals.

The Craigslist effort will mostly be just for this month to test the numbers, as I am moving into this full time from my current job in tech and do not have the time necessary for D4D.If you have done these, do you have experience you can share with how you made it work?

At Standard Management Company, we’ve tested quite a few tools over the years and ultimately settled on AppFolio for day-to-day property management and QuickBooks Online (QBO) for accounting.AppFolio handles the operational side — tenant portals, rent collection, maintenance tracking, document storage, and unit-level financials.

.), pick your goal (BRRRR, rent-vs-sell, refinance test, etc.), and it returns a full underwriting breakdown:Base / downside / upside returnsP&L, DSCR, CoC, sensitivity tablesFlood + insurance risk for FloridaNext-step checklist and “what would change my mind” summaryIt uses conservative defaults (7.11% 30-yr @ 75% LTV, 5% vacancy, 3% expense growth, etc.) and calls out when you should check with a CPA, appraiser, or attorney.You can try it here on ChatGPT by searching for “BRRRR Brain” in the GPTs section.TRY IT OUT HERE!