As your primary or second home, mortgage interest and real estate taxes are deductible as a itemized deduction, on schedule A. That only gets you an additional deduction, above what the standard deduction would have gotten you.
As rental property, you get to deduct not only mortgage interest and real estate taxes, you get to deduct insurance, repairs, utilities, condo assoc fees, your purchase price (thru depreciation) and any other expenses. And you get to deduct then directly from income. That is you get those deductions in addition to the standard deduction, not instead of.
Example: Married Home owner has $15,000 in itemized deductions. His standard deduction is $12,600. he only gets an additional $2400 in deductions by owning a home. But the condo landlord gets the $15,000 in addition to the $12,600.
