I would just expense the HOA fees.If you really want to capitalize it, depreciating the full amount from the start implies you are using accrual accounting. 

@Dave Toelkes I had spoke with my tax preparer and this is what she has implied.

Gyms have classes with instructors however the people that get the best results have the gym membership, attend the classes, and have a trainer to hold them accountable and work with their individual needs.

The only way I see that happening is you putting money in it to rehab it, which would imply you are buying a property with deferred maintenance or other similar characteristics, which just limited your potential buying pool further.

Look around and you will see the average joe is NOT getting six pack;meanwhile six pack book writers, gyms ,pod-casters,personal trainers, supplement sellers, workout equipment sellers,nutritionist,plastic surgeons etc are getting rich. 

And that implies they're developing a mixed-use building or buildings, while the following paragraph says they seek RE deals to purchase in less than 30 days), and their copy is *terrible* - the site is fraught with incorrect grammar and poor sentence structure.It looks like they've loosely modeled after a fund, and if I understand the pitch correctly, it's not a terrible idea (a fund for STRs instead of apartment buildings etc).  

These trainers aren't familiar with NYC and have no clue what our market is like here.

If she purchased at the time she first indicated fears that a correction was coming instead of waiting she would be able to weather a significant depreciation cycle without loosing any of her initial investment.For a lot of reasons I believe Coastal So Cal RE prices are not going to fall significantly in the near term: 1) housing shortage (vacancy rates are near the lowest in the country and they cannot build enough homes to meet demand) 2) rising minimum rage 3) low unemployment; high competition for skilled workforce 4) no matter what you think of Trump, his decisions have been to grow business (very pro-business) this implies revenue is likely to continue to increase which combined with the shortage of skilled workers is likely to result in wage growth (the cost of this growth may be problematic).I see a lot more indicators for further near-term appreciation than I see for significant depreciation. 

That implies you have to research the property you are interested and find out if the property really worth the amount you want to invest.

They do not have to claim it as income - as long as it was not compensation for services but a discretionary personal money gift, completely out of your good heart and not out of an implied agreement.