Interest only payments a write off?

[Teddy Grooms]

I had interest only hard money every month of the year last year, am I able to write it off as regular mortgage interest?

[Michael Plaks]

More bad news for you, @Teddy Grooms.

If it was a rental, your hard money interest was probably paid during the initial rehab, before the property was placed in service. If so - the HM interest is not deductible but is capitalized  into the acquisition cost of the property, along with the cost of the rehab itself. The total is then slowly depreciated.

Disclaimer: some accountants will probably disagree. I hope they will be able to point out justification for their position.