Second home/Vacation Home as Short Term Rental- tax write off?

[Catherine Javier]

Good day everyone. Newbie here and asking for some light.

My spouse and I are travel nurses from FL. We are almost finished rehabbing a LTR we closed last March 2022 and are planning our next purchase.

We are thinking on buying a vacation home in WA (where we currently work as travel nurses).  We will stay here for for  2 weeks during our assignments and will rent this out as Short Term Rental. 

One of our purposes is tax deduction as we are both W2’s. We know that 1 of the requirements for becoming a Real Estate Professional is material participation. We are thinking my spouse can manage it (of course I will be helping out 🙂)

Questions is:

1. We can purchase a second/ vacation home with 10% downpayment, is that right?

2. If we do this and make it as a short term rental, can things be written off such as Interest Rate, Points, Repair and replacement of appliances in the property, fixtures, furniture, utility bills, HOA, (coffee etc for guests?)

3. Can We purchase this under our names, and just make an llc for the activity/rental perse so we can open a set up a business credit card/bank accounts? 

4. If we have a LTR in FL and hopefully an STR in WA, can we claim both losses in our W2's (providing 1 of us passed the requirements of material participation)

Thank you so much for all your information!

Anything is appreciated, we are still unclear about this strategy and your expert opinions are greatly appreciated!