GPS logs your driveto every rental.
REP Helper, the app that helps real estate investors qualify for REPS and the STR loophole, logs your travel time for you. The iPhone and Android app sets a geofence around each of your properties, notices when you arrive and leave, and records the route, miles and drive time, so the hours you spend on the road to do real estate work show up in your record.
- Detects trips in the background
- Route, miles and drive time on every trip
- Drive time adds to the activity it belongs to
Included in: Professional and Elite
Three ways to log a trip,one of them automatic.
Most drive time goes unlogged because nobody remembers to write it down. REP Helper captures it as it happens.
Automatic trip detection
Geofences around each property and saved place let the mobile app detect when you arrive and leave, in the background, without opening the app. Auto-detected trip details are locked to keep the record intact.
One-tap start and stop
Heading somewhere that isn’t a saved place yet? Tap to start the trip and tap again when you arrive. The app records the route in between.
Manual entry, on the web or phone
Forgot to track a drive? Add it by hand with the start and end place, time and miles, so the trip still makes it into your log.
Route, miles and drive time
Every trip keeps where it started and ended, the route on a map, the miles driven and how long it took. Your trip list totals miles and drive time for any period.
Saved places
Save the hardware store, the supply house or your property manager’s office, and trips to and from them are detected too, not just trips to your rentals.
Your spouse’s trips
Filing jointly? Each trip records who drove, so your spouse’s drives land on their own hours and still count with yours for material participation.
From the drivewayto your record.
Set it up once. After that, trips wait for a quick review.
- 1
Turn on trip tracking
In the mobile app, allow location access in the background and choose your active hours and days, for example weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- 2
Drive the way you always do
When you arrive at or leave a property or saved place, the app records the trip and can notify you that it was detected.
- 3
Review the trip
New trips wait for your review with a suggested activity category, such as maintenance and repairs or tenant and guest relations. Nothing counts until you assign it.
- 4
Attach it to the work
Assign the trip to the activity it was for, like the plumber visit at 888 Lucky Ct. The drive time adds to that activity’s duration, and the trip stays attached as evidence.
Why drive time mattersfor your tests.
Time you spend driving to a rental to do real estate work, such as meeting a contractor, showing a unit or turning over a short-term rental, is generally counted as part of that work. Over a year, those trips can add up to dozens of hours toward the more-than-750-hour test, your 50% ratio and the material participation tests for each property.
The catch is proof. The IRS expects records made at the time of the work, and the Tax Court has repeatedly rejected hour totals rebuilt from memory at tax time. A GPS trip recorded the moment you arrived, with the route and the minutes on the clock, is the kind of record that holds up.
Travel that isn’t tied to managing your rentals, such as general investor research, usually doesn’t count. Decide with your CPA which trips you rely on.
Educational, not tax advice. The full rules, with citations, are in the IRS Guide.
Settings youcontrol.
- Geofence size
- Choose how close you need to be for an arrival to count.
- Minimum distance and duration
- Short hops, like moving the car down the street, are ignored below the thresholds you set.
- Active hours and days
- Trips are detected only when you work. Outside those hours you can keep geofence detection on or turn tracking off.
- Trip notifications
- Get notified when a trip is detected, or let trips collect quietly for your weekly review.
- Plans
- GPS drive time, manual and automatic, is included in Professional and Elite.
- Where it runs
- Automatic detection and one-tap trips need the iPhone or Android app. Manual trips work on the web too.
Common questions.
Does REP Helper track mileage and drive time automatically?
Yes. The REP Helper mobile app sets a geofence around each property and saved place, detects in the background when you arrive and leave, and records the route, miles and drive time of each trip. You can also tap to start and stop a trip or add one by hand. Included in Professional and Elite.
Does drive time count toward the 750-hour test?
Time spent driving to a rental to do real estate work is generally counted as part of that work, so it can count toward the 750-hour test, the 50% test and material participation. Travel unrelated to managing your rentals usually doesn’t. In REP Helper, a trip’s drive time is added to the activity you attach it to. Confirm your position with your CPA.
Do I have to open the app before every drive?
No. Once trip tracking is on and location access is allowed in the background, the app detects trips to and from your properties and saved places on its own during the active hours you choose.
What if I forgot to track a trip?
Add it by hand with the start and end place, time and miles, on the web or in the app. Manual trips attach to activities the same way detected trips do.
Can my spouse’s drives be tracked?
Yes. Each trip records who drove, the primary user or the spouse on a joint return, so the hours land on the right person. Spouse hours stay separate for the 750-hour and 50% tests and combine for material participation.
Which plan includes GPS drive time?
Professional and Elite include manual and automatic GPS drive time. Starter doesn’t.