Something that I have noticed, and THIS IS NOT LEGAL OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE, is that only a small percentage of the opinions that I have collected indicated that I should unequivocally adhere to all permit procedures as set out by the city. 

The safe harbor applies to amounts paid during the tax year to acquire or produce what the regs call a “unit of property” (UOP), you must meet these requirements: (1) at the beginning of the tax year, the taxpayer has written accounting procedures treating as an expense for non-tax purposes amounts paid for property costing less than a specified dollar amount (which will be 2500 for you), or with an economic useful life of 12 months or less;.(2) the taxpayer treats the amount paid for the property as an expense on its books and records in accordance with its accounting procedures. ( do this on your bookkeeping software or whatever you utilize)(3) the amount paid for the UOP doesn't exceed $2,500. as substantiated by the invoiceNote: The cost for the Unit of Property includes l additional costs (for example, delivery fees, installation services, or similar costs) if these additional costs are included on the same invoice with the tangible property.Eg:A purchases 100 printers at $500 each for a total cost of $500,000 as indicated by the invoice.

In your case, judging from the amount looks like you can deduct the cost of the rehab as expenses using de minims safe harbor rather than capitalizing and depreciating it.The safe harbor applies to amounts paid during the tax year to acquire or produce what the Regs call a “unit of property” (UOP), you must meet these requirements: (1) at the beginning of the tax year, the taxpayer has written accounting procedures treating as an expense for non-tax purposes amounts paid for property costing less than a specified dollar amount (which will be 2500 for you), or with an economic useful life of 12 months or less;

Judges tend to look unfavorably on "fly by the seat of your pants" landlords that don't use documentation or other procedural efforts.

Southern Hospitality at its finest

My procedure is that I sent a full page detailing EXACTLY how to prep prior to pest control coming in.

(a) A landlord shall not issue a notice to terminate a tenancy pursuant to Section 1946 or 1946.1 1946.1, or seek to recover possession from a tenant under subdivision (1) of Section 1161 of the Code of Civil Procedure, except upon good for cause, as set forth with particularity in the notice.

So, the software company will have procedures in place to monitor what is going on.

Establishing policies, procedures and systems to let your employees run the properties the way you want.  

This is often to referred to as "Inspection Response", and is where most PSAs (Purchase and Sale Agreements) outline the procedure and timelines for responding to issues discovered during inspection (such as buyer requesting a lower price, etc.).