Property improvements are not entered until they are placed "in service" regardless of what year the improvement was actually completed and paid for. Since you did not rent the property in 2019 "after" those property improvements were completed, it makes no sense to enter them on your 2019 tax return. If you enter them, you'll be "forced" to show a business use percentage and depreciate them. Then you turn around a few months later (which just happens to be the next tax year) and recapture that depreciation, thus increasing your AGI.
