You will more than likely need to depreciate those expenses over 27.5 years.Additionally, if the property is rental property, 9 times out of 10 it will be reported on schedule E as passive income/loss, not on schedule C as profit/loss from business.

In the past, our accountant assigned equipment purchases to an arbitrary house (under schedule E), and simply divided general expenses evenly between all houses. 

I'd love to provide a ton of info on this but @Engelo Rumora  really covered the major points.Lots of midwest cities are stable economies and population centers and extremely high rent prices compared to acquisition costs.

If you purchase correctly, in stable or growing areas, with fixed debt (as long as you can fix it), maintain your asset, & achieve cash flow (not over leveraged) then you should be okay.  

See a good attorney who is aware of your personal and business position and who doesn't push asset protection as a specialty as they usually have a shelf product to meet any need.

Sacramento is a more stable market and is a 'government town.'  

Brandon Turner has an excellent (and very short) e-book on how he would do it.  

The agent that I am working with e-mailed me a list of addresses and most were in this specific zip code.

There is that combined with the fact that property values out here don't change near what they do in places like CA which makes them relatively stable investments as well.If learning more about this aspect of investing seems appealing to you and the family, feel free to email me or give me a call and I'd be happy to expand on this and give you some examples to consider at the same time.I'm sorry to hear about selling part of the ranch that has been in the family so long, even if it's a good move.

I would also like your e-mail address to communicate further.