All property improvements done before you converted it to a rental all have the same exact "in service" date. Therefore, you just add the cost of those improvements, to what you originally paid for the property.
I do not know where to put in IMPROVEMENTS from AFTER it became a rental.
In the assets/depreciation section, which is the same exact place the property itself is already listed. Just click the "Add Another Asset" button.
It is not much (around $700) and was replacement of 2 kitchen cabinets that were damaged and a new kitchen sink and faucet as the old one was very worn and the faucet broke. I know these are "depreciated" so I did not put them under the supplies, maintenance or repairs. Do I add them in as another "asset"?
Yes, add the total of those items as an asset, with an in service date of either the date the work was completed, or the date the asset became "available for rent" as a part of the rental property; whichever date is *last*.
Overall, because of the cost, one would think that would qualify for safe-harbor-deminimus which allows you to just expense those items since the cost was less than $2,500. However, because the kitchen cabinets and the sink are actually "a physical part of" the structure now, they have to be classified as residential rental real estate and depreciated over 27.5 years. Those are not items that one might normally remove when selling the property, unlike a $700 window A/C unit. Not very helpful in my opinion to depreciate $700 over 27.5 years, as that's less than $25 a year and will have absolutely no impact what-so-ever on your tax liability. But it is what it is.
Also, I had to keep manually changing the "asset" land value
That is a problem that the TTX program just does not handle correctly at all, when you add the cost of improvements done before the property became a rental, the way the program has you include them. When doing the initial entry for the property itself, it's best not to include those improvements "AT THAT TIME".
Then once you have your figures in for your initial purchase price only, edit the property asset again and simply add your property improvements costs to the amount in the COST box, and leave the COST OF LAND box at $30K, or whatever amount you figured for the land value.
Then, you click the ADD AN ASSET button to add those assets that were put in service *after* the property was converted to a rental.
