You manually figure your property insurance, heat, electric deduction same way as above. However, the difference is "not" deductible on SCH A or anywhere else on your tax return.
Actually, that's not totally correct. The above statement is correct only for insurance.
Utilities, which includes heat and electricity, are fully deductible on SCH E from the time you placed the property in service. For example, since you receive your electric bill monthly, if you placed the property in service on July 1st, then you claim your electric bills in full for the period July-Dec. There is no "averaging" out utilities out the entire year.
Typically, when you rent out a property the tenant is responsible for utilities and has them transferred or turned on in their name. So it's not common for the landlord to have any utility expenses beyond the date the property is placed in service, and the date the tenant is contracted to move in.
The only time I have utility expenses is between renters. That's because I don't have the vacating tenant turn off the utilities. Instead, I transfer the utilities into my name. Then the new tenant transfers to their name on or before the contracted move in date. I generally only have one month's worth of utilities to deduct in this sceanario.
