Taxes, Useful Life, and Licensing

[Ryan Landis]

Hey everyone,

So far BiggerPockets has been nothing but amazing for helping me on my ways to a successful real estate career. I have a couple of quick questions for those out there that have been in this for a while that might be able to point me in the right direction in regard to a few tax questions (IRS sources would be the best):

1)I purchased my first rental (distressed) last year and immediately had to put a new roof on it before I could rent it (requirement by insurance). It sounds like repairs can be expensed, but is the useful life on a roof for straight-line depreciation purposes really 27.5 years?

a.http://www.irs.gov/Help-&-Resources/Tools-&-FAQs/FAQs-for-Individuals/Frequently-Asked-Tax-Questions-&-Answers/Sale-or-Trade-of-Business,-Depreciation,-Rentals/Depreciation-&-Recapture/Depreciation-&-Recapture-4

And if it is, does the fact that this was required before I could rent change how I need to capitalize/expense it?

2)For a garage door opener (i.e. there was a garage door but it needed the new system in place to electronically open it) would that be an expense or do I need to capitalize it? I was thinking expense when I initially installed it.

3)For those of you that have your relator