53216 is eligible

@Christopher McGuire Some might say that your vacancy rate and cap ex allowances are too low, given the very low starting price from which to deduct your "standardized percentages" off.

I’d like to form an LLC from the beginning, so this travel and other related expenses will be deductible.

The legal use will be it's highest and best use unless you are changing it, so your comparable properties need to be similar.Consider quality, style, applicability to the area and function, deduct amounts from your comps for the negative aspects of the subject, bring the comps in line to the subject.

My overall goal is to buy and hold and use this property as a rental.My question is by doing some renovations I'm assuming it will force appreciation and if so, what is typical timeframe from when I purchase the property to be eligible to refinance, assuming I'll qualify (though, I don't see why I wouldn't unless I haven't made my mortgage payments on time.) 

A clarification, if the MLS remarks addressed it as a commission split/deduct (which I doubt) they would have a case.  

You don't have to take the deduction @Christian U. but you do have to account for all allowed depreciation when the property is sold whether or not you took the deduction. 

Forgot to mention the trip is tax deductible.

(Note: I have also built in that they will be deducted if their work site on a job is not cleaned up.

Any gain is taxed at your normal tax rate to recapture depreciation you have taken as a deduction on the house, and as a capital gain thereafter.Basically, a 1031 exchange is just a tax strategy which allows for deferred taxes.