Putting first home on the rental Market!

[Supra]

Thank you for all your responses!

This will be my first shot at being a landlord. I plan on placing some ads and rent signs by March and hopefully have a tenant by April. I have a few questions:

Can I start fixing up my Condo now? Nothing big some paint new dishwasher little stuff like that and still claim it on my taxes? Or do I have to wait till I move out to be able to claim it?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Evan

[kdhastedt]

I'm not a 'tax guy'  (perhaps a few will weigh in here) but here's my 2 cents:

Normally, yes, you can capture the costs of preparing a unit for rental as long as the time period is reasonable (as it appears to be in this case).  I would not wait 6 or 8 months between fix up and rental -- a month or two, depending upon condition, should be fine.  The paint, etc. are considered "repairs" and can be claimed on your 2005 return.  The dishwasher is a depreciable asset and will have to be depreciated over the course of 5 years.

Refer to IRS Pub 527 for more details:

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p527/ar02.html


Keith