Joshua,I guess Ralph has some problems with "My Favorite Categories", he is logged in but the server refuse his acceptance if he click on this.

Our options were foam or batt, and foam is ridiculously expensive so we're going with batt.Laundry room, insulated for sound dampening -The outside wall in the master closet -The outside wall in the master bath -Master bedroom -Standing in the kitchen, looking out to the living room -Living room, interior walls don't get insulated.Here's a really good shot showi with rough mechanicals in -BONUS ROUND - which color scheme do you like best?

As a bonus, ask him to give you a bid for the repair work and I'm sure he'll be delighted to credit your walk-through fee back if you hire him to do the work.

Disclaimer- I will end up doing what our accountant advises, I'm just trying to do a little pre planning before we take our tax paperwork to him, and it's nice to get a discussion going to learn from everyone on BP :)If you have the information available (and it appears that you do) I would definitely go with allocating the expenses to the proper categories (rental property, appliances, land improvements, etc)and depreciating them accordingly.

I guess that puts them in the same category as 95% of all businesses

They might also know what it could rent for, which would be an added bonus!

There are whole countries where this applies and people have been making the ultimate sacrifice to uphold your statement.I just don't think violating this HUD rule, dumb as it may be, falls into that category.

I think I listed a few of them but there are literally hundreds of them in all different categories.  

J,I know this is not an exact parallel and a little askew of the OP question, but how about early completion bonuses?

For managing rehabs for other investors, he gets 50% of income.For other jobs he helps with where we generate income (like helping my wife stage another investor's property), we'll generally give him a small percentage of the profit off that job.And then we generally give a bonus at the end of the year if we exceed our profit goals.I should also add that he saves us some money on some simple handyman type stuff, as he will do things like put up mini-blinds, replace outlets/switches, do minor punch list work, etc, while he is on-site.