Walt's Walkthrough · powered by Basis Property Group
For short-term rental owners
What's in your walls?
Your rental is full of stuff that wears out way faster than 27.5 years. Walt tags it. Basis counts it.
The write-off is gonna move ya
Walt
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Walt's Walkthrough · powered by Basis
38.6kfollowing
212posts
30 yrsin the trades
3cabins
Licensed GC for 30 years. Now I run 3 cabins in the Smokies and I tear walls open for fun. Turns out what's behind the drywall matters at tax time. Plain talk, no scare stories.
About Walt. Walt is a character created by Basis Property Group to talk about depreciation the way a contractor would. He is not a real person and nothing on this page is tax advice. Snapshots and studies are produced by Basis and its partner engineering firm, and how any of it lands on a return is a conversation for your CPA.
Pinned
Free depreciation snapshot. For your actual property.
Basis pulls your county's public record, splits the land from the building, and emails you what an engineering study would likely find: the estimated first-year deduction with a study, next to the one you get without it.
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No catch and nothing to buy. The snapshot is yours either way, usually within one working day.
Recent posts
Voiceloop
Walt
2 days ago
The IRS gives your whole cabin one number: 27.5 years. Your carpet laughs at that. Carpet lasts 5. Appliances, 5. The deck out back, 15. The driveway, 15. A cost segregation study is the engineering paperwork that stops pretending the building is one thing and puts each piece on the clock it actually lives on. The deduction does not get bigger. It gets earlier. Big difference.
2.4k203Share
Walt
5 days ago
I opened this wall in cabin 2 chasing a leak. Look at what lives in there. Wiring runs, cabinet backing, trim. On the county's books all of that is just "building." On an engineer's books, a good chunk of it belongs on the 5 and 7 year schedules. You do not have to open your walls to find out. That is what the study is for.
3.9k451Share
Walt
1 week ago
Short-term rental owners get asked two questions the IRS never asks a regular landlord. Was the average guest stay 7 days or less. And did you materially participate, which is a set of hour-counting tests. I am not going to tell you how your year shakes out. That is your CPA's call, on a call. I will tell you most owners have never heard these tests exist, and the answers change what the depreciation rules even allow. Ask about them by name.
2.1k118Share
Walt
2 weeks ago
"I'll look at it next year." I said that about cabin 1 for three straight years. Here is the thing. The year a property goes into service sets the rules it lives under, and the bonus depreciation percentage has changed almost every year lately. There is no year in which this paperwork gets easier. The only thing that changes is how much of the clock you have already run out.