A real estate professional time log is a dated record of every hour you spend on real estate, used to prove you meet Real Estate Professional Status (REPS) under IRC Section 469(c)(7). A good template tracks four things on every line: the date, the property, what you did, and how many hours it took. You need it to document two tests: at least 750 hours in real property trades or businesses, and more than half of all your working hours in real estate.
You can download our free template for Excel and Google Sheets, or skip the spreadsheet entirely and log from your phone with REPS Time.
If you are claiming REPS and you do not have a contemporaneous time log, you do not really have REPS. You have a number on a tax return that you cannot back up. The deduction can be worth six figures, so the documentation matters as much as the work itself.
Here is the template, what counts, and how to use it so it actually holds up.
What Is a Real Estate Professional Time Log?
It is a running record of the hours you put into your real estate activities, kept throughout the year as you do the work. The IRS does not give you REPS because you own rentals or because you feel busy. It gives you REPS because you can show, in writing, that you cleared both statutory tests.
The reason the log matters so much is the way these cases get decided. When the IRS challenges a REPS claim, it almost always comes down to recordkeeping. Taxpayers who lose in Tax Court usually lose for the same reason: they reconstructed their hours after the fact, the estimates looked round and convenient, and the judge did not believe them. Taxpayers who win tend to have specific, dated, contemporaneous logs.
A template does not do the work for you, but it gives you the structure so logging takes thirty seconds a day instead of a guessing session every April.
What Are the Two REPS Tests Your Log Has to Prove?
To qualify as a real estate professional, you have to pass both of these in the same tax year:
- The 750-hour test. You spent at least 750 hours during the year in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participate.
- The "more than half" test. More than half of all the personal services you performed in all trades or businesses during the year were in real property trades or businesses.
That second test is the one people forget. If you work a full-time W-2 job at 2,000 hours a year, you would need more than 2,000 hours in real estate to clear it, which is why REPS is so hard for full-time employees and much more achievable for a non-working spouse. For a deeper breakdown, see our complete guide to Real Estate Professional Status.
A proper template tracks both. Ours has a dashboard that shows your progress toward 750 and compares your real estate hours against your non-real-estate work hours automatically.
What Hours Count Toward the 750?
This is where most logs go wrong. Not every hour you spend thinking about real estate counts. The hours have to be in a real property trade or business where you are actively participating, not passively investing.
Hours that generally count:
- Acquisition work: underwriting deals, touring properties, due diligence, making offers
- Development, construction, and rehab you are running
- Rental operations: rent collection, scheduling, vendor coordination
- Property management and leasing
- Repairs and maintenance you perform or actively manage
- Bookkeeping and admin tied to the properties
- Real estate brokerage, if you are licensed
Hours that generally do not count:
- Passive investor activity, like reading financial statements on a property someone else manages
- General education, courses, podcasts, and research not tied to a specific deal
- Most travel time (talk to your CPA about this one)
The distinction the IRS draws is between operating a business and being an investor. Watching a syndication you put money into is investor activity. Managing your own duplex is a trade or business. Our template flags each activity type as counting or not counting so you are not guessing. You can also read more on what counts as real estate professional hours if you want the legal detail.
Why a Contemporaneous Log Beats a Reconstructed One
"Contemporaneous" just means you wrote it down at the time, not months later. The regulations technically allow you to prove participation by "any reasonable means," and you are not strictly required to keep a daily log. But here is the practical reality: a detailed, contemporaneous log is the single most persuasive piece of evidence you can bring, and a log you clearly built the night before the audit is the least persuasive.
The difference shows up in the details. "Worked on rental, 6 hours" is weak. "3/14: met HVAC contractor at 412 Oak for AC replacement quote, walked unit 2 for turnover punch list, posted listing, 4.5 hrs" is strong. One looks like a guess. The other looks like what actually happened, because it is.
The template forces the good habit by giving you a description field on every line. Use it. Be specific.
Download the Free Real Estate Professional Time Log Template {#download}
The template works in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets (open it in Excel, or upload the file to Google Drive and open with Sheets). It includes:
- A Start Here tab that explains both tests and what counts in plain English
- A Daily Log with dropdowns for your properties and activity types, plus an automatic "Counts?" flag
- A Dashboard that calculates your progress toward 750, runs the "more than half" test, and breaks your hours down by property, by activity, and by month
- A Non-RE Work Hours tab for tracking your W-2 or other-business hours so the second test stays honest
Download the REPS Time Log Template (Excel / Google Sheets)
Free. No catch. Rename your properties on the Settings tab and start logging.
How to Use the Template in Four Steps
- Set up your properties. Open the Settings tab and rename "Property 1," "Property 2," and so on to your actual addresses. Add more rows if you have more than five.
- Log daily. Every day you do real estate work, add one row: date, property, activity type, a specific description, and hours. The dropdowns keep it fast and consistent.
- Watch the dashboard. It updates as you go. You will see exactly how many hours you have, how many you have left to hit 750, and whether you are clearing the "more than half" test.
- Log your other work too. If you have a job or another business, put those hours on the Non-RE Work Hours tab so the second test reflects reality.
That is it. The whole point is to make logging so easy you actually do it, because the strategy only works if the record is real.
The Honest Limitation of a Spreadsheet
People stop filling them out. You are great about it in January. By March you are entering a week of hours from memory on a Sunday night, which is exactly the reconstructed-log problem the IRS loves to attack.
That is the reason we built REPS Time. It does everything this template does, except you log from your phone in a few taps the moment the work happens, it timestamps everything, and it generates an IRS-ready report at tax time. The 750-hour math and both tests are built in. If you are serious about claiming REPS on a meaningful deduction, automated and timestamped beats a spreadsheet you have to remember to open. You can start free and keep the template as a backup.
Either way, log your hours. The deduction is only as strong as the proof behind it.
This article is educational and not tax or legal advice. Real Estate Professional Status depends on your specific facts and circumstances. Confirm your situation with a qualified CPA or tax advisor. References: IRC Section 469(c)(7); Treasury Regulation Section 1.469-5T(a) (material participation tests); Treasury Regulation Section 1.469-5T(f)(4) (recordkeeping).
