The $1,000 fee is reasonable — it’ll cost you far more if you make mistakes, miss deductions, or get audited later on.

Companies I've found and the cost they would charge for 1 property under 500kKBKG - $450 - (audit support included)Re Cost Seg - $1800 (audit support included)DIY Cost Seg - $495 (+ additional $195 for audit support)Would love feedback to before settling on one.

Thanks,  Software cost seg is easy and accurate - diycostseg.com - they also provide audit defense. 

AHP Servicing never filed their 2022 Audit.2.

Three, they function more like the accounting systems I'm used to from my corporate days--you can't delete things as easily, so there's a clearer audit trail.

Audits are promised but are always 30 to 60 days away.

It doesn’t have to be fancy; just consistent and clear enough to show your participation, especially if an audit comes up.Personally, I try to break things down by week, and add a summary of what I focused on (so if you have a template or method that makes this even easier, definitely share ideas!).

You can (and did) receive generic advice, but it is not enough if your goal is to be audit-proof.Things you may be missing:- before counting hours, you need to pass material participation for each of the activities (or group of activities)- there are two different groupings of activities, and you may need to combine both- targeting 750 hours is very unsafe, you need a significant cushion- driving hours have been treated by courts both ways, so you cannot rely on them to pass the test- a helpful informal way to look at hours: if someone else was performing the tasks that you want to count as REPS hours - would you pay them for these hours?

Next step: audit last 12 months of damages, rank top 5 items by cost and frequency, then standardize those SKUs portfolio‑wide.

I understand your aversion to paying a tax professional, but you would be better off.Your attempt to DIY this thing may result in losing some of the benefits and even triggering an IRS audit.