How to Adjust Your Tracking Goal in REPSLog

REPSLog allows you to customize your tracking goal based on whether you are managing Long-Term Rentals (LTR) or Short-Term Rentals (STR), and how you plan to use your hours for tax purposes.

How to Adjust Your Goal

1. Go to the Overview screen.

2. Tap the gear icon next to your total hour count.
   

   
   
3. Choose from the available goal options.
   

   
   

4. You can always return to the gear icon to adjust later.

Long-Term Rentals (LTR) for Investors Claiming REPS

If you’re working toward Real Estate Professional Status (REPS), you’ll see the following options:

1. Track 750 Hours by Myself

• Default selection.

• Applies to most investors working to qualify for REPS.

2. Track Only Material Participation (including spouse hours, if applicable)

• Recommended if you already have 750+ hours in real estate business activities, but still need to meet material participation specifically for your rental properties.

2a. Reach 500 Hours

• Totals hours across all properties combined.
  

  
  

2b. Reach 100 Hours (And No Less Than Anyone Else)

• Shows a breakdown of hours per property (e.g., x/100) with a total count at the top.

• Helps ensure material participation requirements are met for each property.

Tax Note

• To qualify for REPS, you must track 750+ hours of material participation specifically in your rental activities.

• A common misconception is that you need 500 material hours + 250 general real estate hours. This is incorrect. According to our tax partner Hall CPA (a leading real estate-focused CPA firm), all 750+ hours must be material (see IRS guidance, Publication 925, Section 8).
  Exception: If you’re a real estate agent, property manager, or in another qualifying real estate profession, then only 500 material hours in rentals are required.

Short-Term Rentals (STR) for Investors Leveraging the STR Tax Loophole

By default, your tracking goal is based on the 100-hour material participation requirement:

• Single Property:

  • Your total hours count toward the 100-hour goal.

  • You can also expand an arrow to see how many hours other participants (e.g., spouse, cleaner, manager) have worked, if logged.
    
    

• Multiple Properties:

  • You’ll see a per-property breakdown (e.g., x/100) and a total hour count at the top.
    

    This is useful if you choose to group your properties and aim toward the 500-hour material participation goal instead.

The grouping election: Reach 500 Hours

Some hosts, with their CPA, make the grouping election and treat all of their short-term rentals as one activity for material participation. The test for the group is then 500 hours across all of the properties, not 100 hours per listing.

To track it that way, tap the gear icon on the STR overview and choose Reach 500 Hours. Every property row is then measured against 500 and the Total Hours Combined number at the top is the figure that matters. Switching back to Reach 100 Hours restores the per-property view; nothing in your log changes either way.

REPSLog tracks the hours. The election itself is filed with your tax return, and whether to make it is a decision for your CPA.

Reminder

When it comes to tax strategy for your hour tracking goal, please consult with your CPA or tax professional. REPSLog helps you track and visualize your hours, but your CPA will guide you on the exact requirements for your situation.

See what your REPS or STR loophole hours could be worth in tax savings with the STR tax savings calculator or the cost segregation calculator.