Hello,

My mother-in-law is in the process of converting her former primary residence in Fresno, CA into her first long-term rental. She recently moved out and has already hired a property manager, who will be coordinating interior painting and new carpet before the home is listed for rent. She'll also be paying for cleaning and other costs to get the property ready.

We're looking for a CPA who has experience with residential rental properties and can help ensure everything is set up correctly from the beginning, including establishing depreciation, determining the placed-in-service date, and advising which costs should be expensed versus capitalized and depreciated.

My wife and I live in Long Beach, CA and plan to purchase our own rental property within the next year, so we'd ideally like to establish a long-term relationship with a CPA who can assist both my mother-in-law now and us as we begin investing ourselves.

Since this is her first rental and the setup is fairly straightforward (one property with a property manager already in place), we're looking for someone who is a good fit for this type of situation rather than a firm that primarily handles large or highly complex real estate portfolios.

Would you recommend looking for someone local to Fresno, closer to Long Beach, or does location not matter as much these days? If you've had a great experience with a California CPA who understands residential rental properties, I'd really appreciate any recommendations or advice on how to find the right fit.

Thank you!