What a cost segregation study actually does
A cost segregation study breaks a property's purchase price into components -- structure, land improvements, and personal property such as furnishings and appliances -- so that the shorter-lived components can be depreciated faster than the building as a whole.
For a short-term rental, that reclassified portion is often modeled around a quarter of the purchase price, though the real figure depends on the specific property and should come from an actual study, not a rule of thumb.
Bonus depreciation and why the acquisition year matters
Bonus depreciation lets a qualifying portion of that reclassified cost be deducted in the year the property is placed in service, rather than spread over decades -- but the applicable percentage has changed by law multiple times in recent years and depends on when the property was acquired and placed in service.
This is a genuinely technical area with real dollar consequences, which is why BNB Accelerator coordinates the acquisition timeline with AE Tax Advisors rather than treating the tax plan as a separate, later conversation. This is educational information, not tax advice -- confirm your own figures with a licensed advisor.
BNB Accelerator's acquisitions team, led by Nick Korom, screens over 1,000 short-term rental listings a week and hand-delivers the roughly 2% that clear underwriting. Book a free consultation to see what a done-for-you short-term rental acquisition looks like for your situation.