How to pay less tax with this situation?

[Adama Bah]

Situation:

1- W2 employee making $230000-$300000 a year. 
2- owned 2 properties under personal name, 1 in LLC

What are the best way to get tax benefits ?

Renovated a house-hacked but because of the income, we could not deduct expenses  

Should we put all our properties in an LLC?

[Bill B.]

LLC or not won't make a tax difference.

If you’re renovating a house-hack, live in it next time and stay there 2 years. Then you can sell tax free, even better than deductions. 

At your income rate your rental income could be tax free but not deductible against your regular income. 

You could research and try to take advantage of he STR tax "loophole" but you're simply accelerating your depreciation deduction not actually reducing your taxes.