The impact on taxes of short and long term rental of home

[brendalujan333]

Hi, I need to decide whether to do long term or short term rental of my house. How will each affect my taxes?

[Alicia65]

There are pros and cons to Long term vs short term rentals. Long term is usually a tenant with a 12 month lease. The advantage of this is a more predictable income. The disadvantage is limits to raising rent during lease period and possibly renting to the wrong tenant. Advantages to short term is flexibility of several tenants and higher income. Disadvantage higher operating expense and some places prohibit short term rentals. 

As far as the impact on taxes you have to rent. You need to rent out your home for more than 14 days to be able to claim the income or loss on a Schedule E. So if you are renting short term it needs to be at least two weeks.