To materially participate in a real property trade or business, the taxpayer must be involved in the operations of the activity on a regular, continuous, and substantial basis (IRC Sec. 469(h)(1)).Participation hours in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participate are those that affect the day-to-day operations of the business.For landlords, that can mean:●Hours spent acquiring property (not research hours!)

,Living out of state does not disqualify you from material participation.

From a PARTICIPANTS perspective I’ve decided that there are 3 MAIN (tremendous if not unlimited number of SUB categories) categories.     

The land was worth the purchase price plus the cost of tear down to get to bare land. 

And for tracking material participation hours and not receipts, what makes the receipts piece harder to stay consistent with?

Family members like your daughter don't count for material participation, though.Just sent you a DM with a guide on this, might help clarify things further!

You just need material participation (100+ hours) in the STR itself.

No YouTube video or online course can prepare someone to entitle land across different markets.Once you select a market, I strongly recommend engaging a local zoning attorney and a local civil engineer who regularly practice in that jurisdiction.By way of example, I am based in Philadelphia and have encountered very different entitlement issues across projects: one involved an overlay that required negotiations with both the Planning Commission and the Historical Commission to make ADA-compliant façade changes; another required stormwater and Streets Department reviews before a zoning permit could be issued; and a separate $20 million development I am currently working on ran into a conflict between zoning approvals and the building code due to a design team oversight and is now undergoing a redesign.Investors operating in other markets will face their own local land use, zoning, and code issues that are just as nuanced and location specific.As far as the value that's created, there must be a very compelling story of value add for lenders to treat the imputed equity borrower's equity participation.

Overseeing tradesmen while they work on your properties sounds like material participation to me.

There are rules you need to be aware of including material participation, 100 hours, and self management, to benefit from a cost segregation study.