Stay away from overly loud backsplash or kitchen tiles and stay away from black on white modern farmhouse and opt for earth tones.

totally upgraded the kitchen, and bathrooms, New landscape, lights, paint.

For example, kitchen cabinets and possibly even counter tops could be considered "personal property" and, as such, could be written off completely if installed after Sept 27 2017.

If the rental space was physically part of the living area of your home, such as a spare room used rental room, the rental usage doesn’t affect your gain/loss calculations and will qualify for the full exclusion given the seller meets all other requirementsIf the rental space wasn’t within your living space, such an duplex with its own entrance (and kitchen and bath), or a working farm with a farmhouse on the property, then you have to take into consideration of the business use and you need to make separate gain/loss calculations for the business and residence portions of your property.

Choosing not to accelerate depreciation on new equipment purchased this year.  

My contractors is keeping lots of equipment there and had to find a garage guy to install a new opener asap.

On the walls,in the vents, in the mechanical equipment.

So now the only thing standing in your way is your landlord, and you're not quite sure what his reasoning is...Robert, you yourself described your tenants as "great tenants", so even if there was no financial benefit for you, it's very little effort to keep them happy.Here are the benefits to YOU as I see them:Less strain and longer life on your HVAC equipment, as others have mentioned.Improvement of your property at no cost to you (except patching paint).

If you know what you need to do before day 1 of ownership and anticipate & prepare for what can go wrong, you should be better equipped for a smooth transition.

If you list the rooms individually how do you deal with shared areas (who gets to use the kitchen?