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Investors & landlords
Long term residential rental real estate is reported on SCH E. Note that it is not common for rental real estate to show a profit "on paper" at tax filing time. When you add up the rental deductions of mortgage interest, property taxes, property insurance and the depreciation you are required to take, those four items alone will usually exceed the total rental income received for the tax year. Add to that the other deductible rental expenses such as maintenance and repairs, and you're practically guaranteed to show a loss each and every year
Generally, once your rental losses get your taxable rental income to zero, that's it. Any remaining loss is just carried over to the next year. With each passing year your carry over losses grow. You can't actually use and "realize" those losses until you sell the property. If you convert the property to personal use that just suspends those losses and they remain "in limbo" so-to-speak, until you actually sell the property.
Now there is an exception that a fair number of landlords qualify for. If you qualify (and you very well may) then you can deduct a maximum of $25K of your excess losses from "other" ordinary income. With that, it's perfectly possible that you will not have carry over losses since all of your losses would be allowed first against taxable rental income, and then any remaining losses up to $25K against other ordinary income.