You want an accountant who can help you strategize and who is responsive when you want to know the consequences of the financial decisions you are making throughout the year.Good luck. 

But you could say something along the lines of this in your lease;"If the monthly gas bill exceeds $X or the water bill exceeds $Y, the tenant will reimburse the landlord for the difference as an additional charge."

Hi Jared, welcome to the community!  

Any tips for a first time investor would be greatly appreciated.

think about it:-when you buy a property, you'll have a down payment, closing costs, rent-ready costs, costs to get set up with a PM, a commission to place a tenant... maybe some light repairs after the tenant moves in...

How are the utilities billed?

I intend to implement them once the process begins.

.: unless a lake front, dont bother - the market is oversaturated. open airbnb and see how many available properties there are for the upcoming holidays.  

With all of the short sales popping up on the MLS I know I will be successful in finding and helping someone.

We purchased a property in early October and are placing it in service this week (mid November).We had intended to run a cost segregation study and try to accelerate depreciation which we can deduct against our W2 (assuming material participation).However, we have been reading through the IRS guidelines (eg publication 946 on Property Depreciation) and there seems to be the concept of "short year" which would mean that we can only deduct ~1.5/12 of a year's worth of depreciation in 2024.Is this correct or are there any different rules for STRs specifically?