Los Angeles - Assigning LAND vs BUILDING VALUE for depreciation

[Melissa M.]

Hi everyone! First of all, just want to say I'm really grateful for this community. 

I bought my first property this year - a SFH in front (where I owner-occupy for now but plan to rent out in 1-2 years) and two ADUs in the back (which I rent out). I was hoping assigning land value for depreciation would be simple as using the county's assessment; but the property tax assessment I received was not what I was expecting at all.

Land value: 620K
Improvements: 120K
Total: 800K

To be honest, when I was running my numbers, I estimated not being able to depreciate 50% land value; and I thought I was being conservative. I could not have imagined almost 80% would be assigned to land value. That's a huge amount that's un-depreciable!

So BP community, what are my options here? What have other landlords done in this situation? I've looked into appealing tax assessment. I've looked at using other valuation methods; however the IRS seems to favor using property tax assessment.

Would appreciate any insight! Thank you.