I am inquiring because my wife and I are attempting to utilize the real estate professional status to allow us to deduct passive losses from my physician salary.

NOT doing 1031 on this one lAny list of things which can be deducted besides the major ones such as property taxes, materials etc What about mileage back and forth to fix up?

You want an accountant that can help you strategize and who is responsive when you want to know the tax consequences of the decisions you are making throughout the year.You also want an accountant who understands business taxation and deductions. 

If so, then you can only deduct half your expenses.

There is a new 20% pass through deduction you may qualify for that could help you, but not everyone qualifies.

If it’s your first property and you’re not worth more than $1m, you will get significant interest rate advantages for putting an investment property in your personal name and just buying an umbrella policy like $1-2m (mine costs me like $300 and also covers if I have a catastrophic auto accident). 1% interest rate differential on 30 year loan for $500,000 can be tens of thousands of dollars. (5,000/year more then declining as you pay off the principal, but a ballpark of 2500x30 is $75000 more in interest (deductible)).

Lastly, you lose the benefit of depreciation deductions since the account is already tax deferred or tax exempt (if in a Roth).There are a number of ways and means to leverage/fund a RE purchase without taping into your retirement account, so I would start looking into some of these options.

There are a number of tax breaks available and some of the most common types are real estate depreciation tax and investment tax deductions.

I'm thinking I should take the deductible for the flood insurance and multiply it by the annual probability of flooding to get an expected annual cost due to flood damage.

Your principal is not deductible, so you are technically going to owe taxes on your principal repayment.But you also will write off management fees (if you pay any), leasing commissions, repairs and maintenance.