Accounting for rental property startup costs

[Tim Schroeder]

My properties are short-term vacation rentals. To get a property ready for guests, I spend a significant amount of money (10-15k) in linens, mattresses, small appliances, rugs, decor, soap, coffee, etc. Also minor repairs such as paint, plumbing, HVAC repair, etc. Then there are a few thousand in travel costs to travel for closing and setup. Call it 20k. When the down payment is 50k, this is a proportionally significant number.

From a ROI perspective, I would like to bundle all these "startup costs" along with my down payment and closing costs into a lump sum (call it "acquisition cost") so that I can compute my cash on cash ROI.

But this is in conflict with how the IRS will treat them -- as ordinary expenses.

Besides not having a good picture of how my P&L is actually doing, I would like future lenders to see the higher (actual) profit, not a poor first year because of the startup costs. This makes my business look like it's making less money than it really is.

So how should I deal with this from an accounting perspective? Is there any alternative, or do I just have to accept that year 1 profit will appear to be low due to the initial abnormally high expenses?