Everything we'd send a client — plus the people we'd send them to.
Free downloads, calculators, and reference material built from the same engineering and tax-rule frameworks behind every Cost Seg Smart study. Then, when the question is bigger than depreciation, the firms and sources we trust.
Free tools you can hand to your CPA.
The STR investor's tax guide
How the STR loophole works under IRC §469, the material participation tests, stacking cost segregation on top, and Form 3115 lookback for properties you already own.
STR material participation time log template
An IRS-ready format for contemporaneous entries that holds up for the 100-hour and 500-hour tests. Fill it in as you go, not the week before filing.
CPA cost segregation review checklist
What to verify before you file a client's study: MACRS classification spot-checks, basis reconciliation, and the audit-defense documentation that should be attached.
Should you do a cost segregation study?
Five questions that settle it in about a minute: what the property is worth, how long you're holding, whether it earns income, your bracket, and whether it has been studied before.
See a real, anonymized study before you order one.
Calculators and tools.
Look it up.
Our published research, definitions, and rule citations — all open, all free to link.
Resources we'd actually send you to.
We do one thing: engineering-based cost segregation. Everything below is outside our shop — the CPA firm we refer clients to, and the primary sources we check our own work against.
Taxstra
A proactive tax-planning CPA firm for high-income professionals, business owners, and real estate investors. They're the ones we call when a client's question is bigger than depreciation — REPS qualification, S-corp elections, entity structure, or a return that needs a plan rather than a filing.
- They have a study but no one to plan around it
- Their CPA says "just file it" about REPS
- W-2 income is high and passive losses are trapped
- They need multi-state or entity work alongside the rental
Evolve
Specializes in: Half-service short-term rental management — they run booking, listing and guest comms; you keep the cleaners and the local vendors.
Visit Evolve ↗Vacasa
Specializes in: Full-service vacation rental management, including housekeeping and maintenance on the ground.
Visit Vacasa ↗Mynd
Specializes in: Long-term single-family and small-multifamily management for owners buying outside their own market.
Visit Mynd ↗Kiavi
Specializes in: DSCR rental loans, bridge and fix-and-flip financing for investors borrowing in an LLC.
Visit Kiavi ↗Lima One
Specializes in: Rental portfolio, new-construction and rehab lending for full-time investors.
Visit Lima One ↗Visio
Specializes in: 30-year DSCR loans for long-term and vacation rentals — underwritten on the property's income, not your W-2.
Visit Visio ↗IPX1031
Specializes in: Qualified intermediary for forward, reverse and improvement exchanges.
Visit IPX1031 ↗Asset Preservation
Specializes in: Qualified intermediary work with a heavy emphasis on how exchange funds are held and secured.
Visit API ↗First American
Specializes in: Qualified intermediary sitting alongside title and escrow, for exchanges that have to move with the closing.
Visit First American ↗REI Hub
Specializes in: Double-entry bookkeeping organized around properties and units — the per-property basis detail a study needs.
Visit REI Hub ↗Stessa
Specializes in: Portfolio tracking with automated income and expense capture, reported in Schedule E shape.
Visit Stessa ↗Baselane
Specializes in: Banking, rent collection and bookkeeping together, with a separate account per property.
Visit Baselane ↗AirDNA
Specializes in: Market-level short-term rental demand, occupancy and ADR data for underwriting before you buy.
Visit AirDNA ↗PriceLabs
Specializes in: Dynamic nightly pricing and minimum-stay rules that move with local demand.
Visit PriceLabs ↗Wheelhouse
Specializes in: Dynamic pricing with strategy controls, for hosts who want to steer the algorithm themselves.
Visit Wheelhouse ↗Marketics
Specializes in: Done-for-you short-term rental revenue management and listing optimization.
Visit Marketics ↗Proper
Specializes in: Short-term and vacation rental policies written for homes that host paying guests.
Visit Proper ↗Steadily
Specializes in: Landlord insurance for long-term and short-term rentals, quoted online.
Visit Steadily ↗- Property management: a manager's hours do not count toward your material participation — if the STR rules are part of the plan, choose deliberately.
- 1031 exchange: a qualified intermediary defers the gain; a study accelerates the deduction. They solve different problems and are often used together.
How this list works: Taxstra is a firm we have a working referral relationship with and may receive a referral fee from. The tools and firms listed above are uncompensated — we list them because clients ask and they're what people actually use. We're not affiliated with any of them, and a link is not an endorsement of any specific product or price. Cost Seg Smart is not a CPA firm and does not provide tax advice.
Straight from the IRS.
Nothing on this site outranks these. Read them yourself — or hand them to a CPA who says cost segregation is aggressive.