Rental Property Remodel deductions and depreciations

[jraybe1]

After owning a condo out of state for 9 years, with the same tenants, we remodeled including appliances and a new HVAC system paying a total of $30,000.  The same tenants are still renting.  We also spent about 1,000 on new furniture, etc.  Here are my questions:

1.  Can I put the total for depreciation as $31,000 over time or do I have to check the box for items $2500 or less and do separate entries?

2.  If we are planning to perhaps sell the condo in a couple years, should I depreciate over time or complete the section 179?

2.  Can I deduct the expenses of a VRBO, food, and transportation which we incurred when the remodeling was being done so we could monitor the remodel since it was done in a different state?

3.  Would I also list the $31,000 expense in the Miscellaneous expenses at the end or just in the depreciation section?

4.  If I can't list these expenses as Miscellaneous at the end, what can be listed as Miscellaneous?

Thank you for your help.

[AnnetteB6]

It would be better to separate the items and enter them as Assets for depreciation.  If you depreciated the entire remodel as one Asset, it would be considered a component of the condo and would be depreciated over 27.5 years.  If you separate the items from one another, things such as the appliances are depreciated over a shorter span of 5 years.

If you are planning to sell in the next few years, it would probably be better to depreciate over time so that you would not have to possibly recapture some of the section 179 deduction.

If you were at the condo doing the work for the remodel, then the costs of your Airbnb, transportation, and meals would make sense as a rental expense.  If you were just there to supervise and oversee the project, it is more difficult to justify the deduction.

You would not list the $31,000 as a miscellaneous expense if it were already included in Assets for depreciation.  That would be claiming the expense twice.

Other miscellaneous expenses could include anything not shown in the other categories.  For example, credit card fees, bank charges for your rental business account, HOA dues, lawn maintenance, alarm monitoring, or any number of things not previously included in another category.