My wife and I have a $20k net loss from our rentals.
That is not at all unusual at all. In fact, it's extremely *rare* for rental property to *ever* show a taxable profit; especially if there's a mortgage on the property.
Do understand however that since rental income is passive, so are the rental losses. Therefore your passive losses can only be deducted from the passive income. Once those passive losses get your taxable passive income to zero, that's it. You're done. Any excess passive losses are automatically carried over to the next year where they are deducted *IF* you have the passive income to deduct them from. (That would be rare).
So generally your passive loss carry overs will just get larger with each passing year. Now in the tax year you sell the property, that's when you will "realize" all those carry over losses. In the year you sell, all of your carry over lossses can be claimed against/deducted from all "other" ordinary income.
So more than likely your rental activity will have absolutely no effect either way, on your tax liability for the 2019 tax season.
