I suggest you convert the property to rental use effective 1/1/2020. That way, it stops depreciation. Remember, two things happen with depreciation in the tax year you sell the property.
1) You are required to recapture all prior depreciation and pay taxes on it.
2) The recaptured depreciation increases your AGI, and has the "potential" to bump you into the next higher tax bracket.
If you convert the property to personal use on 1/1/2020, then you have no rental expenses at all to claim on the SCH E for 2020. The only items you can claim are the mortgage interest and property taxes as a SCH A itemized deduction.
While your general "rental expenses" are not deductible as a SCH E expense, all of the property improvements you did still get added to the cost basis of the property, thus decreasing your taxable gain (if any) on the sale, or increasing your tax deductible losses (if any) on the sale. So in my opinion (and we all know what opinions are like.) this would probably be the better way to go.
Additionally, by doing it this way, you won't deal with the cost of any property improvements until next year when you report the sale on your 2021 tax return. So keep all your receipts. It's also possible that a majority of your repair expenses can be claimed as a part of your sales expenses on the sale, as it would be considered expenses incurred while preparing the property for sale. Also included as a sales expense are your "carrying costs", such as utility bills and yard maintenance costs.
Note that if you elect to convert the property to personal use at a later time in the year, such as the date you made the decision to stop renting it and put it up for sale, you can do that. However, your "days rented" day count "DOES" include vacant days between renters. Therefore, your days rented would be from Jan 1 2020 up to the date you converted the property to personal use. It's not a problem either, if you show $0 income. But your rental expenses will be deducted as such on the SCH E up to the date of conversion. If you elect to have the program "do the splits" for you, then the program will split the mortgage interest and property taxes between the SCH E for the period of time it was classified as a rental, and the SCH A for the period of time it was personal use. You still have to pro-rate the property insurance yourself though, as you can only deduct the property insurance on the SCH E for the period of time it was a rental. Insurance is not deductible anywhere for the period of time the property was personal use.
One major important thing to understand with all this, depending on what you select, you may be asked for "days of personal use". That day count will be ZERO, as I seriously doubt you lived in the property as your primary residence, 2nd home, vacation rental or any other type of "personal pleasure" use between the time the last renter moved out, and the date you closed on the sale.
