Deducting expenses for new rental not yet rented

[krystinw]

Hello,

My property manager put my house up for rental in November 2025 (listed on Zillow, etc) but did not find a tenant until January 2026 so I have no rental income to report in 2025. However, I would like to be able to deduct some expenses (landlord insurance, HOA, cleaning and maintenance, repairs) that were incurred since listing the home. When I fill in "days rented at fair rental price" as 0 and "Personal use during the year" as 273 days, TurboTax is telling me that this is considered a "not-for-profit-rental" and wants to delete this property from my return. It says "Be sure to enter: expenses for this property in Deductions and Credits. Expenses can't be higher than rent you received." Since I did not receive any rent in 2025, does this mean I cannot enter any expenses?  

Thank you!

[Vanessa A · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can still enter expenses, you will just need to change some of your answers.  I am assuming you converted this house from your personal home to a rental, the number of days you lived in the house PRIOR to renting out the home do not count and should not be entered.  So if you did not personally use the house after it was converted that answer should be 0 days. 

If this is the case, when you are in the do any of these situations apply select, I converted this property from personal use to a rental in 2025.

There should ALSO be a question that asks if it was always rented at fair rental price before you are asked about the number of days.  Answer YES to this question.  Although it was not actually rented, you planned to rent it at FMV and you will still tell the program it was rented for 0 days. 

Then when asked was this property rented for all of 2025 say No then a drop down will appear.  Enter 0 days rented at fair rental price and leave the personal days at 0.