Writing off expenses incurred before Rental Business

[Alexander Sadeghi]

Hi everyone,
I am wondering if there are guidelines for writing off Rental Property investment related expenses on taxes which were incurred before acquiring a rental property. 

I am looking to buy my first rental property this year under my own name, not an LLC (yet). I understand that once I acquire the rental, and start producing income off of it, that there are various business related expenses I can write off. How about expenses incurred while educating myself and investigating properties (plane tickets, gas mileage, training, meet ups, etc). Would these be able to be written off as well? Thank you!