As a real estate investor, you may use your home as your office.  Having part of your home as a business expense can allow you to depreciate some of the improvements to your home office.  The IRS has a depreciation schedule that helps you calculate the exact amount that can be counted toward your taxes.  Keep in mind that depreciation is a fixed expense that you should be accounting for anyway, not just some government giveaway.  The year you first start using your home you can depreciate it on your income.  You can do this by declaring this part of your home nonresidential real property.  You then use MACRS, as nonresidential real property using this method can be depreciated by using the straight line method.  For full information, see the IRS Publication 587.