I don't know if you converted the property in 2017 or not. Either you did or you didn't.
Also, since you're using the desktop version of TurboTax, the tax file is saved in your documents/turbotax directory on your hard drive and has a filename extension that ends with .tax2017. So answer the questions and work it through. If you mess things up really bad, it's easy to start over from scratch. Just close the program, delete the .tax2017 file then open the program and start over.
Just understand this. Since rental income is passive, that makes rental expenses passive also. Therefore your rental expenses can only be deducted from rental income. So if you did not have the house rented out in 2017, don't bother converting it in 2017. With no rental income for 2017, your rental expenses incurred in 2017 will not be allowed and you will see "NO" tax benefit at all.
It is HIGHLY uncommon for rental property with a mortgage on it to "EVER" show a profit "on paper", unless you're renting it out for about three times what the mortgage payments are. Basically, depreciation and other deductions more commonly offset the taxability of the rental income, and the excess deductions are just carried over to the next year. So as the years pass, your carry overs just increase with each passing year.
Then in the year you sell the rental property, that's when you get to "realize" all those carry over deductions and they can offset the taxability of the depreciation recapture quite a bit, if not completely.
So quit trying to 'read between the lines" what is not there. Work through the program, answer the questions and get it done.
