Most cherished is the time we spend together, even if it's just watching reruns of "Frasier" or cooking a meal together.This morning, I woke up with a lyric in my head which came to me in a dream.

It is out of state so you incur expenses: flight, car rental, lodging, meals, etc.

My accountant advised two most audited items are meals/entertainment & mileage expense.

What are the costs involved between airfare, hotel and meals?

Let it evolve into talking business (then you can BOTH take a 50% deduction for your meal!).

How to cook a meal, clean the dishes, make the bed, how to keep the house clean, some basic maintenance around the house like mowing the lawn, and mock scenarios such as how to invite friends/family over and what would be expected ways to socialize.

All I would be looking to deduct is the vehicle mileage and meals while traveling. 

I would spend 6 hours per weekday (75%) of the trip to meet real estate agent and check out houses there.According to this tax planning strategy, I believe I will have rental loss (if I did bought the house and hire a property manager to manage that place) because I think the cost of airfare and hotel (land exploration expense), utilities (USA internet for research), and meals will be greater than the profit from the rental real estate investment that I bought.

This is a great lesson in both following the rules and keeping documentation.When it comes to verifying your hours for qualifying for a real estate professional, or verifying your mileage logs or verifying the use of your home office or verifying the business need for meals and entertainment, the rules state that a contemporaneous log must be kept and made available for review.I have lots of clients that estimate mileage, throw away receipts, etc.  

If it's interesting dishes, then you could maybe make an offer to the owner for you buying a 'gift card' for monthly dinner for two for a year - that's 24 meals and add that the buyer will get 1 year of monthly dinner.