Renting out rooms in soon to be purchased house

[Erik Karpinski]

I plan to purchase I new home within the next month and was planning on renting out 1-3 rooms to future friends/tenants. I’ve done a little research regarding tax deductions for the portion I am renting out but was looking for more advise for precisely calculating how much of the house I can offset with depreciation for tax purposes. I was thinking that I could depreciate whatever percentage of the home was occupied by the number of renters (ex. Myself + one additional renter= depreciate 50% of home value) as they will have equal access to kitchen, living room, etc. I was also going to cover utilities as part of their rental expenses and deduct part of the utilities as well in addition to supplying furniture for their rooma which I would also depreciate. My question is what kind of documentation do I need to keep track of to avoid IRS trouble and are there other tax deductions that I could take advantage of? Any and all advise would be welcomed. Thank you in advance!

[Carl Fischer]

@Erik Karpinski

Keep “your” stuff separate from tenants. Let your cpa help you. You may want to look into “homesteading”  the home as well. Homestead in some states, like Fla, is very beneficial tax wise.