...but then why does TurboTax Help say this?
Expenses you pay to prepare a property for rent for the first time are not deductible because there has been no rental activity. These expenses may be added to the cost/basis of the property and recovered through depreciation.
This suggests that expenses for preparing the property (not necessarily for capital "improvements", could just be wallpaper, painting, etc.) are able to be added to the cost basis. True?
