Expenses and deductions this year

[Benjamin Richards]

I've used TurboTax to do my taxes for several years now. Once the property basis is entered it's very easy.

I have six rental properties, and two of them showed a loss on paper for 2018. The portfolio is net profitable for the year. But in the two net loss properties, when I enter an expense it is actually DECREASING my total refund. So right now (haven't submitted it yet) I'm not claiming insurance or PMI on them because it lowers my refund.

This doesn't pass the sanity check. We have too high an earned income to write off losses but it makes no sense to pay MORE tax for losing money. Has anyone else encountered this?