Why does a cost segregation study cost more for a hotel than a warehouse?

Because the engineer has far more to classify. A hotel carries dense furniture, fixtures and equipment across guest rooms, lobby, bar, and conference space, per-room mechanical equipment and dedicated guest-room circuits, and large land improvements like pools and parking. A warehouse is largely a shell: low mechanical density, minimal partitions, and personal property often only 5% to 15% of basis, with the effort shifting to exterior site work like truck courts and yard lighting. Fewer distinct asset classes to analyze and document means fewer engineering hours, which is why market fees for warehouse studies start lower than hotel studies even at similar property values.

How much does a cost segregation study cost for a single-family rental?

The market range for an engineer-signed single-family rental study runs roughly $1,750 to $5,000. Our fee is $1,200 to $2,500, in the residential and small property band. Self-serve software with no engineer publishes rates from about $495. Traditional engineering firms commonly quote $3,000 to $9,000 for the same asset. A single-family rental is the least engineering-intensive property type: standard residential systems, simple land improvements, and no tenant fit-out to allocate.

Does a short-term rental cost more to study than a long-term rental?

Usually a little more, because there is more personal property to identify. A furnished short-term rental adds full furnishings, appliances, electronics, and window treatments in the 5-year class, plus outdoor items like hot tubs, fire pits, decks, and patios in the 15-year land improvement class. That is more line items to document than an unfurnished long-term rental, though far fewer than any commercial property. Market ranges for short-term rental studies cluster around $3,000 to $5,000, and our residential band of $1,200 to $2,500 covers them.

Which property types have the highest reclassification percentages?

Restaurants and hospitality properties typically reclassify the highest share of basis, because of dense kitchen equipment, specialty electrical and plumbing, decorative finishes, and heavy site work. Retail and self-storage also run high, driven by land improvements such as parking fields, signage, fencing, and gates. Warehouse and industrial properties are lowest, often in the 15% to 35% range, because the building is largely structural shell. Higher reclassification means a larger deduction, but it also means more components to identify, which is part of why those studies cost more to produce.

Cost Segregation Study Cost by Property Type (2026)

Property type is the single biggest driver of what a cost segregation study costs to produce, and it is the one most fee schedules ignore. The reason is straightforward once you have done the work: the fee tracks how many distinct asset classes an engineer has to identify, quantify, price, and defend. A bare warehouse shell might produce a few hundred line items. A full-service restaurant produces thousands. Same tax code, same methodology, wildly different amount of engineering.

This page walks the ten property types I am asked about most. For each one: what the market charges, what our fee is, and the specific components that make it more or less work.

On the numbers

Market ranges describe what providers across the industry commonly quote as of July 2026, gathered from published rate cards and public investor discussions. They are not offers from those firms and they move. Square footage figures are illustrative typicals, not survey data. Our fees are our published bands, and a specific property is always quoted individually.

The Grid

Property type	Typical size	Market fee range	Our fee
Single-family rental	1,500 to 3,000 sq ft	$1,750 to $5,000	$1,200 to $2,500
Short-term rental (furnished)	1,500 to 4,000 sq ft	$3,000 to $5,000	$1,200 to $2,500
Small multifamily (2 to 4 units)	3,000 to 8,000 sq ft	$2,500 to $5,000	$1,200 to $2,500
Office building	10,000 to 100,000 sq ft	$5,000 to $15,000	$2,500 to $6,000
Retail / strip center	5,000 to 50,000 sq ft	$2,000 to $15,000	$2,500 to $6,000
Restaurant	2,500 to 10,000 sq ft	$3,000 to $15,000	$2,500 to $6,000
Self-storage	30,000 to 100,000 sq ft	$4,000 to $14,000	$2,500 to $6,000
Warehouse / industrial	20,000 to 200,000 sq ft	$5,000 to $25,000	$2,500 to $6,000
Apartment complex (20+ units)	20,000 to 100,000 sq ft	$5,000 to $15,000	$6,000 to $12,000
Hotel / hospitality	Room count is the driver	$5,000 to $35,000	$6,000 to $12,000

One row is worth pausing on. Our apartment complex band starts above where the market range starts. That is not an error and I am not going to hide it. A 20+ unit complex with amenity space and multi-building site improvements is real work, and if a competitor quotes $5,000 for it, they may well be the better buy on price. What I will not do is publish a fee I cannot deliver the study for.

Residential: The Least Engineering-Intensive Work

Single-family rental

The baseline against which everything else is measured. Standard residential mechanical, electrical, and plumbing with no three-phase power and no process piping. Land improvements are simple: driveway, walkway, fence, landscaping. There is no tenant fit-out to allocate between landlord and tenant. Reclassification typically lands in the high teens to low twenties as a share of basis, with a modest line-item count.

That is why the fee should be low, and why a firm quoting $7,000 for one is quoting your property value rather than the work. Market quotes for engineer-signed residential work span roughly $1,750 at the low end to $9,000 at traditional firms, and the spread is about the provider rather than the house. Ours is $1,200 to $2,500.

Short-term rental

More work than a long-term rental, less than anything commercial. The furnishings are the difference: a fully furnished rental carries appliances, electronics, window treatments, and furniture that belong in the 5-year class, plus outdoor amenities like hot tubs, fire pits, decks, and patios that land in 15-year improvements. More line items to identify and document, but still standard residential systems underneath.

Worth noting separately: short-term rentals carry a depreciation question that has nothing to do with study cost. Where average guest stays are short, many practitioners treat the property as non-residential and depreciate it over 39 years rather than 27.5, on the reasoning that it is not a dwelling unit used for residential purposes. The commonly-cited seven-day threshold comes from the material-participation rules under the Section 469 regulations, which is a different test from the Section 168 recovery-period question, and the two get conflated constantly. The analysis is fact-specific and not fully settled. It changes the outcome substantially, so settle it with your CPA before commissioning anything.

Small multifamily, 2 to 4 units

Each additional unit multiplies the 5-year personal property: separate kitchens, appliances, fixtures, and in many buildings separate mechanical and electrical subpanels, all sitting on top of shared site improvements. Still no commercial fit-out, and residential component libraries are mature, so the analysis is well-trodden. Market range is about $2,500 to $5,000; ours is the same residential band.

Standard Commercial: Where Tenant Allocation Starts

Office

Three things drive the hours. High-density branch wiring with task and accent lighting and dedicated circuits for server and IT equipment. The owner versus tenant split, which requires reading leases to decide what is landlord property and what is tenant leasehold improvement, and whether improvements qualify as qualified improvement property. And site improvements: asphalt lot, walkways, fencing, exterior lighting, landscaping. Market range about $5,000 to $15,000; ours $2,500 to $6,000.

Retail and strip centers

Retail carries unusually heavy 15-year land improvements relative to building size, because the parking field, pylon signage, site lighting, curbs, and pad landscaping are large compared to the structure. Multi-tenant centers add lease review to separate landlord assets from tenant improvements, storefronts, and trade fixtures. Display and track lighting, security systems, and point-of-sale wiring all need classifying.

This is also the type where market quotes diverge most sharply. Desk-engineering providers quote near $2,000, mid-size engineering firms $3,000 to $7,500, and national firms well into five figures on large multi-tenant centers. Same asset class, and the spread is about the provider rather than the property.

Restaurant

The highest system density of anything in the standard commercial band. Dedicated kitchen wiring, grease traps, exhaust hoods, walk-in coolers, and heavy food-preparation plumbing. Intensive fit-out including millwork, decorative lighting, point-of-sale infrastructure, specialty flooring, and booth seating. Specialized site work such as drive-thru lanes, order boards, drainage, and outdoor dining. Restaurants reclassify a high share of basis, which is good news for the deduction and the reason the study takes longer.

Self-storage

An instructive case, because it inverts the usual pattern. Interior work is minimal: simple metal shells, low mechanical density, no fit-out. But the site improvements are heavy, with drive aisles often spanning two to three times the building footprint, plus perimeter fencing, electronic gates, drainage, and exterior lighting. Then there is volume: hundreds of roll-up doors, keypads, and camera runs, each a 5-year or 15-year asset that has to be counted. Low complexity, high quantity.

Warehouse and industrial

The lowest reclassification share of any type, commonly cited in the 15% to 35% range, because the building is mostly structural shell with minimal partitions and low mechanical density. The work shifts outward: truck courts, heavy concrete paving, security fencing, yard lighting, storm drainage, and specialized equipment like dock levelers and high-voltage runs. Market quotes run wide at $5,000 to $25,000, largely because "industrial" covers everything from a storage barn to a process facility. A genuine manufacturing plant with process piping is a specialist job and I would often send it to a traditional firm.

Large and Complex

Apartment complex, 20+ units

A hybrid that surprises people. Interior work per square foot is actually lower than office or retail, because repetitive identical unit layouts let an engineer model one unit thoroughly and extend it across the building, and there is no tenant build-out to allocate. The work moves to multi-building site improvements, parking, exterior lighting, fencing, landscaping, drainage, and to amenity spaces: clubhouse, pool, fitness room, and their shared mechanical systems.

Hotel and hospitality

The most engineering-intensive property type in normal practice. Very high furniture, fixture, and equipment density across guest rooms, lobby, bar, and conference space: carpet, wall coverings, lighting, casework, furniture, and food and beverage equipment. Dense mechanical systems including per-room packaged units and dedicated guest-room circuits. Large land improvements: pools, amenity areas, parking, lighting, landscaping. And a documentation wrinkle unique to the type, where branded and managed hotels require reading the management agreement and any brand FF&E reserve to determine which assets the owner actually owns and can depreciate.

When the Property Type Says Do Not Bother

Some property types make a weak case for a study regardless of fee, and it is worth naming them.

A small, plain condo interior. If you own the interior only, with no land, no roof, no site improvements, and no mechanical systems of your own, there is very little to reclassify beyond finishes and appliances. Sometimes the honest answer is that the deduction will not clear the fee.
Raw land or a property that is mostly land value. Land is not depreciable. In high-land-value urban markets the building can be a minority of the purchase price, which shrinks everything a study can act on.
A bare warehouse at a modest basis. Low reclassification percentage on a small basis is a small deduction. The type works well at scale and poorly at the bottom.
Anything you are about to renovate. Study the finished building. Paying to classify components you are about to remove is a poor use of the fee, though partial asset disposition on the removal is a separate opportunity worth asking about.

And the constraint that overrides property type entirely: if you have no income the deduction can offset this year, the timing benefit may sit suspended regardless of how good the study is. Run your own numbers in the free calculator before you commission anything.

Cost Segregation Study Cost by Property Type