Tax Question: Real estate Prof.? Prop Mngr.w/ One rental property

[Joy Elisse Garner]

Hey!! 

We are planning on hiring a tax professional to really sort this out, but we're just curious how this whole thing works. We just discovered the real estate professional tax break and we are wondering how this can be applied to our situation. My husband works full-time for a commercial real estate company, they are actively acquiring properties and managing them (flipping, holding and occasionally selling) them. We also have 1 duplex we just purchased a few months ago as our first investment home. My husband gets taxed a lot on his income from his job and we are looking to offset those losses somehow. We are still renovating the duplex and have no rental income yet from this place, so far it has just been a loss technically because we haven't finished the renovation and refinance. I think he qualifies as a real estate professional, but I am not sure since most of the time he spends for another company. Curious if our w2 income we can still deduct our losses against that. Sorry if it seems like I don't know what I am talking about, this is all new to me!