selling second home

I am changing jobs and relocating to another state. The house that we bought here three months ago we need to sell. Would it be better to use it as a rental property before we sell it. There will be no gain and I will lose money because of the realtors comission.

Loss on sale of residence

The problem, as I see it, is that you cannot deduct a loss from the sale of your personal residence, so the question is whether you can convert the home to rental property, then sell it at a loss and deduct the loss.

The rule is that a residence is converted from personal use if it is rented or otherwise appropriated to income-producing purposes and is used for those purposes up to the time of its sale. Temporary rental of a residence before sale does not necessarily convert its use to business use.

The determination of whether a residence has been converted to business or income-production use depends upon the facts of the case and how they show the intent of the owners. For example, residences were effectively converted to income-producing use when: rented for 19 years before sale; and when the property was originally acquired with the intent to sell it.

There is no conversion to rental property when rental is only an interim measure until a sale is complete.