It's really the same thing as saying 25 year useful life, but doesn't carry the same subtext of - the building will be worthless in year 26..

If they fit the definition of a "real estate professional" not only is one allowed to deduct ALL expenses in the current year and will no longer have to carry over losses that exceed their income over the years as with passive income, but, if married and filing joint, they may even deduct their expenses against their spouse's income as well.

Why else carry on. 

To carry the analogy further, are the other patrons more or less likely to come back to this bar?

The ideal situation is to find sellers willing to carry back a note (10% to 30% @ 7% int only w/ balloon in 5 yrs).

Also, if all of your rentals use the same thing, you can carry less materials for things like repairs and touchups.One last thing, alot of the contractors can source items cheaper than Lowes/Homedepot at local supply houses.  

For all of 2015, however, the building remained vacant.I'm wondering if I can count the depreciation expenses from 2015 in that year, and if not, can they be carried over to 2016?

We think this would be a great time to house hack a small multi-family rather than paying extreme rents or carrying a complete mortgage ourselves.  

She said plus, the tenant would be responsible for all repairs because he's renting to OWN.I told my agent, 'but I will have to finance the purchase so there can't be a rent to own contract if I carry a note on the house.' 

So, there's this commercial property for sale that the owner has owned since the early 90s and he stated he will carry a contract for deed.Asking Price: $190KRequired Down Payment: $30KAPR: 6%Loan Term: 20 yearsNOI: $15K - $20K per yearThe property is a couple hours away from where I live and I do not know how many businesses lease from the building (obviously I will ask).