Posted by Bud Branstetter on December 05, 2000 at 23:47:24:
The IRS may not allow it if they audited you because you are not the owner. Then they would make the owner recapture when it is sold even if he had not talen the depreciation.
Better yet, get the owner to put the property in a land trust. Then sell you an interest in that trust for your option fee. Have a beneficiary agreement that says what he will get at the end and what you will get. You can then clain depreciation on the part you own up to the 80-90% mark.