deducting major repairs

[Sol Dubnov]

We purchased a rental property and had to invest major amounts into repairs. The cost of the work is expected to exceed the projected rent income for this and may be couple more years, and we were hoping to recover the costs ASAP from the future income.

My question is whether we can report the repairs as losses and deduct them from income, or will it be considered as improvement, in which case it can be only deducted from tax when we sell the property?

Since we intend to hold on to the property, and we used up our savings on this remodeling and took some credit card loans and other debt, we really need to find a way to maximize our short term returns...

thanks for your advice
Sol