Agents and brokers:your job hours count.
REP Helper helps real estate professionals qualify for REPS by counting the hours from your real estate job, not just your rentals. If you work as a real estate agent, broker, contractor, developer or property manager, REP Helper adds that work to your real estate hours, applies the IRS 5% ownership rule for you and tracks your rentals in the same record.
- Agent, broker and contractor hours
- The 5% ownership rule, applied for you
- Your rentals, in the same record
Included in: Professional and Elite
Who counts,and how.
The IRS counts real estate work in any real property trade or business you materially participate in, including brokerage, if you aren’t a small-stake employee.
1099 contractors
Many agents work as independent contractors. Hours in your real estate business count toward the 750-hour and 50% tests.
Owners, partners and members
Own a brokerage, property management company, construction firm or development company through a partnership, LLC or S corporation? Those hours count.
W-2 employees who own more than 5%
Employee hours count only if you own more than 5% of the employer. REP Helper counts them toward your real estate hours.
Other W-2 real estate employees
Your hours still matter: they count in the 50% test total, so REP Helper adds them to your working hours without counting them as real estate hours.
Set up your workin a minute.
Describe each job once; REP Helper does the math all year.
- 1
Add each real estate job
Choose how you work: 1099 contractor, owner, partner or member, or W-2 employee, with or without an ownership stake above 5%. Add a short description, like “Agent at a brokerage”.
- 2
Enter your typical hours
Enter hours per week, for an average week or per month, with the dates you held the job this year, so a mid-year start or a career change counts correctly.
- 3
Add any other work
Enter hours from jobs outside real estate too. Your spouse can enter their own work.
- 4
See both tests move
Your job hours and your rental hours add up toward the 750-hour test, and the 50% test compares them with all your working time.
Why agents and brokersoften qualify.
Real estate professional status needs more than 750 hours in real property trades or businesses and more than half of all your working time in them. For a full-time agent or broker, most working hours are already in real estate, so the 50% test that stops most W-2 investors is often within reach.
Brokerage is one of the real property trades or businesses the Code names, alongside development, construction, rental, management and leasing. Hours as an employee count only if you own more than 5% of the employer, which is why REP Helper asks how you work and applies the rule.
Qualifying is only half of it. Each rental is still passive unless you materially participate in it, or in all of them under the grouping election, so log your rental work as it happens too. Keep your brokerage calendar and transaction records as support for your job hours.
Educational, not tax advice. The full rules, with citations, are in the IRS Guide.
Good toknow.
- Plan
- Real estate job hours and other work hours are tracked on Professional and Elite.
- Job hours are estimates
- You enter typical hours for each job. Keep your own records, like your calendar and transaction history, as support.
- Spouses are separate for REPS
- On a joint return, one spouse must pass the 750-hour and 50% tests alone. Each spouse enters their own jobs.
- Rental hours still need logging
- Material participation in your rentals is a separate requirement, tracked per property or grouped.
- Check with your CPA
- How you’re classified, and whether you materially participate in your real estate business, is a question for your CPA.
Common questions.
Do my hours as a real estate agent count toward REPS?
They can. Hours in a real property trade or business, including brokerage, count toward the 750-hour and 50% tests when you are a 1099 contractor, an owner, partner or member, or a W-2 employee who owns more than 5% of the employer. REP Helper lets you enter that work and applies the 5% rule for you.
What is the 5% ownership rule for REPS?
Hours you work as an employee count toward the REPS tests only if you own more than 5% of the employer (IRC §469(c)(7)(D)(ii)). REP Helper counts other W-2 real estate hours only in the 50% test total, not as real estate hours.
Can a full-time realtor qualify as a real estate professional?
Often, yes, because most of their working time is already in real estate. They still need more than 750 hours in real property businesses they materially participate in, and material participation in their rentals.
Do property managers and contractors qualify?
Property management and construction are real property trades or businesses. Contractors and owners count their hours; employees count them only with more than 5% ownership.
Which plan tracks real estate job hours?
Professional and Elite.