New Rental Setup
Placed-in-service facts, depreciation setup, initial tax treatment, and first-year reporting considerations.
Services & pricing
Real estate investor tax services built around the work you actually need.
Alpine CPA Services focuses on individual Form 1040 tax work for residential real estate investors, with simple entity returns available as add-ons for qualifying clients. Annual preparation is the foundation. Planning is added when recurring decisions justify it, and technical or transaction issues are scoped separately when they require focused analysis.
Tax preparation
$1,500+starting fee
Many good-fit real estate investor preparation engagements are approximately $1,800-$3,000+ as properties, states, K-1s, transactions, or other household complexity increase.
Preparation + planning
$4,000-$5,500+common combined range
When meaningful annual planning is warranted, the engagement combines preparation with defined planning cycles, projections, and implementation guidance.
Focused tax projects
$1,500+many projects begin here
Technical and transaction work is separately scoped when the issue goes beyond ordinary annual preparation.
These are public pricing guideposts, not a fee calculator. Your fixed fee is confirmed after Alpine understands the actual scope.
How Alpine structures the work
Three ways Alpine helps real estate investors.
You do not need to choose a package before talking with Alpine. The firm reviews the facts and recommends the smallest complete engagement that solves the tax problem.
One principle guides the recommendation: do not sell annual planning when accurate preparation is enough, and do not bury a technical project inside a tax-preparation fee when the issue requires substantive analysis.
01 / Annual foundation
Real Estate Investor Tax Preparation
Starts at $1,500
For individual investors who need accurate annual federal and state income-tax preparation with proper continuity for their rental activity.
Alpine prepares the household return while paying particular attention to the rental-property tax issues that can be mishandled when Schedule E is treated as just another form.
Preparation may include
- Federal Form 1040 preparation
- Applicable individual state income-tax returns
- Schedule E and Schedule C treatment when appropriate
- Rental income and expense reporting
- Depreciation continuity and review
- Passive-activity and suspended-loss reporting
- Review of client-provided STR participation records when relevant to the filed position
- Rental-property basis and carryforward continuity
- Electronic filing and return explanation
The $1,500 starting fee applies only to a very clean one-rental individual return. Additional properties, filing states, K-1s, business activity, transactions, cleanup, or other household complexity can increase the fixed fee.
02 / When recurring decisions matter
Annual Tax Planning
Preparation + planning commonly $4,000-$5,500+
Planning is available when there are meaningful decisions to make during the year—not simply because you own rental property.
The goal is to address decisions while there is still time to act, rather than discover the consequences when the return is already being prepared.
Planning may be appropriate when you need
- Household tax projections
- Estimated-tax or withholding decisions
- Year-end planning before December 31
- Depreciation or cost-segregation implementation guidance
- Planning around new rental activity
- Recurring STR material-participation documentation guidance
- Coordination of major rental decisions with the rest of the household return
Annual planning is bounded and defined in the engagement. It is not unlimited year-round advisory access. A single discrete issue is often better handled as a focused technical project instead.
03 / Focused analysis
Specialized Real Estate Tax Projects
Many focused projects begin around $1,500
Some real estate tax issues deserve their own analysis instead of being squeezed into annual return preparation.
Project scope depends on the decision, records, transaction stage, prior reporting, and how much implementation or coordination is required.
Common project areas
- New rental setup and depreciation review
- STR material participation strategy and documentation
- Cost-segregation decision and implementation review
- Personal-use and Section 280A mixed-use analysis
- Residence-to-rental or rental-to-residence conversions
- Rental sales and Section 121 analysis
- Individual-level Section 1031 exchange analysis
- Depreciation remediation and prior-year review
- Form 3115 method-change implementation when appropriate
More complex projects are quoted after Alpine reviews the facts. Related work may be consolidated so you are not charged twice for overlapping analysis.
Examples of focused work
Common real estate tax issues Alpine can help analyze.
STR Material Participation
Prospective strategy, documentation expectations, and review of the facts that affect the individual return.
Cost Segregation
Whether a study is worthwhile, how the deduction interacts with your return, and implementation review.
Mixed Personal & Rental Use
Section 280A and personal-use issues when a property serves both rental and personal purposes.
Conversions & Sales
Residence/rental conversions, depreciation history, Section 121 issues, and rental-property sale analysis.
1031 Exchanges & Remediation
Individual-level exchange analysis, depreciation corrections, prior-year rental treatment, and method-change issues.
Pricing philosophy
Fixed fees based on actual scope, not STR versus LTR labels.
A clean STR can be simpler than a messy long-term rental. Alpine prices the return and any related work based on the facts that actually consume judgment, review time, and responsibility.
Important scope drivers can include the number of properties and states, K-1s, household business activity, record quality, ownership complexity, prior-year problems, sales or exchanges, depreciation work, and the amount of planning required.
You'll know the recommended scope and fixed fee before the engagement begins.
Important boundaries
Individual investor work, with defined entity and accounting boundaries.
Alpine prepares qualifying simple partnership (Form 1065) and S corporation (Form 1120-S) returns connected to the client’s individual rental activity. Entity returns are separately quoted fixed-fee add-ons to the individual engagement; they are not included in the individual preparation starting fee. Eligibility is confirmed during the fit assessment.
Simple means 2–4 owners, residential rental real estate only, one state, complete and reconciled books, no special allocations or guaranteed payments, and no prior-year catch-up or cleanup.
Alpine generally does not provide bookkeeping, payroll, lodging or sales-tax filings. More complex entity returns are referred to another CPA while Alpine handles the agreed individual-level work. Meaningful coordination is separately scoped when needed.
Start with fit and scope
You don't need to choose a service before contacting Alpine.
Complete the short Real Estate Investor Tax Fit Assessment. Johnny reviews the situation first, and a brief Fit Call is used when needed to clarify scope. Alpine recommends a defined engagement and fixed fee. Documents are collected after signing and used to verify the agreed scope before substantive work begins.
