The various items you mention are not directly deductible as rental expenses (that offset otherwise taxable rental income); however to the extent that they lower your net proceeds received upon the sale of property, they do benefit you by way of lower realized capital gain (or a greater realized capital loss). Let us explain through a quick and simplified example.
Suppose that Jane buys some property for $400,000 in 2010 and then in 2016 sells it for $500,000. It is easy to see that her gain is $100,000. However, let us now be more realistic, and add in a realtor's commission, title transfer fees, recording fees, title insurance fees, notary fees, etc. and say that Jane actually received only $470,000 (net proceeds) after paying for all these real estate charges out of the $500,000 (gross proceeds) from sale.
Her taxable realized gain is not $100,000, but is instead just $70,000. If her property were a rental property, she would not deduct the $30,000 in fees from her rental income, but would instead "utilize" the fees by way of recording a lower net proceeds received from the sale. Hopefully this concept now makes sense.
For more information on the sale of rental property, you are also welcome to refer to another TurboTax AnswerXchange question that was recently answered on this very subject. You may find some insights there as well, along with links to various IRS reference materials on the sale of rental properties. Here is the link to that other page:
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3792156
Thank you for asking this question.
