It was low end and very dated when I rented it out to the current tenant, and has seen significant wear and tear in the 5 years they've been there.

I'd live in it until I get a new assignment, rent it out for a while, and eventually tear it down/rebuild for a better home to rent out.

This will allow a contractor to put together a decent remediation estimate (I would include a reasonable contingency since these rarely go as planned and the moment you tear something down you find something else to deal with). 

How high you can go up on such a small size parcel can make a big difference in returns.If the buildings are old the procedure to tear them down could get expensive.Also tenants on current leases the disruption to their businesses would likely need to do in stages more (start and stopping) with development and meanwhile labor and material costs can go up.

Well they asked me to come over and take a look at a new tear spot on the stairs and asked if they put $1000 towards the carpet if they could get it replaced.

Unfortunately, not all of them specialize in real estate taxation.For one to claim a deduction - it must be ordinary and necessary(and reasonable) in the business that you are in.Rental properties go through wear and tear from year to year.

I completely understand where you’re saying wear and tear exists, but I think it’s probably unlikely that ANY landlord could expect the place to be in perfect shape when the tenant arrives and leaves, natural wear and tear is going to happen.

I can bore you to tears as to why, but I will save the rest of the community from my spiel.

You look at the wrong zip code in Vegas where somebody just bought 4 tears downs next to the hospital and you’ll see the median house price dropped from $200k to $70k that month.

I am hoping to capitalize on the personal aspect that i'm not going to be tearing down your house to build town homes.