tax code income limits

[Ashley Langeliers]

Hi everyone!  Last year, my husband and I became landlords by default when we moved out of our primary home on the Central Coast of California to the Bay Area for job relocation.  It worked out nicely however as we have been increasingly interested in real estate investing.  Our incomes have both risen steadily over the past year so we are actually hoping to move out of our current home in the Bay Area into more of a long term home in the same area in next 12 months, which would leave us with 2 rental properties, after which we would hopefully start saving to build our real estate portfolio further.

However, having just finished our 2016 taxes, we learned that we are unable to claim any of the standard deductions including maintenance, depreciation, et cetera as we exceed the income limit, leaving us with a huge tax bill.  Currently, our annual income is around $250K.  Has anyone had experience with this?  Are there any creative solutions?  We both need to keep our full time jobs.  

Thank you so much in advance!!