Househunting expenses deductible?

[Russ Roslewski]

At the beginning of last year we owned one single-family home as a rental property, in another state. Last summer, my wife traveled there to look for another property to purchase, found one, and we bought it. She also stopped by to check on our existing property.

Are any of her travel expenses associated mostly with looking for a new house to buy and rent out deductible? She was there for 5 or 6 days, and I'm sure she would say there's no way it could be considered a "pleasure" trip.

If not, can I deduct some portion of the expenses, since she did check on our existing house? How would I calculate that?

Thanks.