Tax question about "Placed in Service" date...

[Shawn Wilson]

I'm new to the world or real estate investing and have a quick question about taxes. I purchased a home in August of 2002 that I lived in until July of 2016. We moved into a new home and leased our old home. I'm doing my taxes and I'm in the portion where you state if you've placed property into service (for the sake of the depreciation benefit). It asks for a date for the property your are converting from personal to rental and I've read you need to enter the date your home was built, not the date it started being a rental. Is this correct? Sorry if this is written in a confusing manner, I'm a little overwhelmed with the whole tax preparation, usually I have two W-2's and I'm done. :-)