Start up Costs for Rental in Boston

[Mark M.]

Hi, new member, first post.

My wife and I are renting our current house in the North Shore of Boston in a town called Lynnfield.  There are not a lot of rentals in this town and rents average about 3k for a 3BR house because of the school system.

I am looking for a good CPA in this area who has experience with REI, but until then I have some questions on tax strategies regarding Start Up Costs.

#The House:

Bought House for 455K, put in about 80K over the past few years, house is now valued at 600K.

Rental should yield about 3K a month or 36K a year, and expenses for everything should be about 26K a year including all indoor, outdoor maintenance and mortgage payments.  This property should cash flow about $800.00 a month to us.

#Start Up Cost Questions:

I have some upcoming Start up Costs (about 10K worth) needed to make this property more hands off in the long run.  Are these Start Up Costs, and how are Start up Costs treated compared to yearly maint Costs?

Yard Beautification = 1800

Kitchen Floor = 2000

Wave Ventilation System for basement = 2000

New gutters = 2000

# Older Costs incurred

How far back can I go in listing Start Up Costs for this house?  Here are other projects we did in past 3 years.

Kitchen Remodel $4,000 in 2016

New Deck $10,000 in 2014

Much appreciated!

Thank you