Tax deduction question

[Ernie V.]

I just talked to my accountant,  and she is filing my taxes for 2017. I did purchased a my first rental property  in 2017 and we did repairs in it. It is a house hack property where I live in one unit and rent the other one. My accountant just told me i cannot deduct any of my repairs for rental unit since it wasn't rented, well my rehab on that unit was done in late November and it wasn't rented last year. What should I do? Please help. It is in Wisconsin. Any advice.  

[Daniel Hyman]

@Ernie V.

She should be able to add most of the rebab cost to the basis and depreciate it in 2018 and future years. 

[Jon Holdman]

Money spent on a rental property getting it ready to rent adds to the basis.  Its not immediately deductible, but will get depreciated in the coming years.  You should track individual items so you can depreciate individual items on their own schedule rather than just lumping everything into "improvements" and having to use the 27.5 year schedule.

What you're dealing with is the real meaning of depreciation.  You buy something in one year but it is consumed over several.  You take the partial deduction each year.

[Vaughn Smith]

@Ernie V. Im not an accountant, but I think that the accountants advice is correct based on the fact that you owner occupy though you should be able to deduct some cap ex. If you aren't comfortable with your C.P.A's advice, I'd seek the opinion of two other C.P.A's just to be sure though, this way you may have a more well rounded answer 

[Ernie V.]

Thank you so much for your answers.