I guess if you buy cash then the negative cash flow from property taxes / minimal utilities / insurance isn’t too bad...especially if you are mainly holding to preserve wealth.

Some of these houses have huge apartments with beautiful woodwork that is well preserved. 

Additionally, Ivy Freitag is the City of Omaha Planner who focuses on local landmarks and preservation.

The uncle refinanced the home and their is a lien against it for $23,000 by the finance company who are putting pressure on the cousins fiancé to catch up the late payments and on my husband and I to assume the loan for the next 10 years in his deceased uncles name to preserve his credit!

Also would be better to seek possession and assign it to a management company so they can maintain the preservation costs which may make it less likely to argue on the costs involved?

Capital (Cash Flow) preservation is most important and if your cash flow is decent right now, you may want to consider a more paced approach as opposed to divesting your portfolio all at once. 

PRESERVED THE TRUE ERA CHARACTER AND CONVERTED A LAUNDRY INTO A FULL OPERATING BATHROOM What was the outcome?

Leaving and preserving the economic family legacy was a priceless lesson.

If I do move forward and bank on the deduction, should I finance to preserve my cash flow?

We must go thru the historical preservation office and follow their guidelines for completion of work.