House hacking: ext. maint (paint) considered personal or business

[Amanda Garrett-Baker]

We are renovating a home to house hack, we live upstairs and there is a full apartment with private entrance in the basement. The exterior needs maintenance such as replacing (terribly) peeling paint, fixing cracks in driveway, replacing a dented garage door, and some minor landscape work to give it more curb appeal.

I was advised to keep my personal finances totally separate from any rental renovations/expenses with separate credit cards and separate bank accounts to pay the credit cards. Easy so far, murky when considering shared space such as outdoors. The paint, garage door replacement, and cracks are all necessary to fix get a renter (they enter through the garage to access their private entrance). The landscaping for curb appeal isn't necessary but could perhaps be justified as increasing curb appeal to get the renter in.

Anyone know which of these expenses should be put through the business account? I have contacted an accountant but I have to buy the paint this weekend and haven't heard back (cheap tip, Sherwin Williams is 40% off this weekend).

Additional info for voracious readers in need of more context: we are brand new to renting, we have only done live-in-flips thus far. I do have an accountant contact but since we're still new, we haven't had to file with them so I'm pretty inexperienced in this area.

Thanks for any advice!