Starting a rental earlier

[Paul H.]

Hey guys,

I recently bought my first property for rental (a vacation house that I will rent by the week), and I'm fast learning about as many of the pitfalls to try and avoid them. The one I am running up against is the age old tax problem... I know I can write off $5,000 in startup costs. Sadly for a house that needs a bit of cosmetic work, that's not going to last long. I know if I go over that amount, I end up amortizing it over a long time, and I believe that if I keep my items to under $2,500 I can write them off as de minimis deductions and take them all at once.

So my question is, is it worth putting the house up for rent early (say in November) so that I can start taking my deductions as non-startup costs at that point? I believe I can then write off up to $25,000 against my active income per year, so long as I make under $100,000

So my question is can I accrue startup costs now (September-October) until I expire my $5,000 then put on the market to rent (it will likely not rent much as it will be out of season) and take a loss against little to no rental income in those two months, while I get it ready to start in earnest the next season?