the first thing that must be determined is are you a real estate professional under IRC section 469(c)(7)(B)
Qualifications. You qualified as a real estate professional for the year if you met both of the following requirements.
• More than half of the personal services you performed in all trades or businesses during the tax year were performed in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.
• You performed more than 750 hours of services during the tax year in real property trades or businesses in which you materially participated.
If you file a joint return, don’t count your spouse's personal services to determine whether you met the preceding requirements.
the hour requirements are per property unless an election is made with the taxpayer's return under 469(c)(7)(A) to aggregate the properties. changes in the tax rules may allow filing a late election. seek professional help if you go this route
if you are not a REP and did not acquire the property, then then the expenses you incurred would be investment expenses which are no longer deductible starting in 2018. if you are a REP, but didn't acquire the properties , such expense would be considered those related to fruitless searches for new ventures and would be deductible under IRC section 165 on schedule C. if you did acquire the property, these would be start-up expenses under IRC section 195 REP or not.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/195
note that record keeping for the hours spent in real estate activities is crucial. the IRS has been challenging those that classify themselves as REP's. The IRS and courts have disallowed the classification where the record keeping was poor.
