Mileage Deductions for Real Estate Agents: Showings, Open Houses, Errands, and Audit-Ready Logs
Agents drive constantly, but not every mile is equal. This guide turns your weekly fieldwork into a cleaner mileage record your accountant can actually use.
The basic rule: business purpose matters
The IRS explains that business use of a car can generally be calculated with either the standard mileage rate method or the actual expense method. Either way, you need records that show what happened. For agents, the best record connects each trip to a client, property, showing, open house, inspection, or business errand.
Sources: IRS Topic 510 and IRS Publication 463
Agent drives to review as business mileage
These categories are common in a real estate business, but your facts still matter. Record enough detail that a tax professional can understand why the trip belonged to your work.
Listing appointments
Driving to meet a seller, tour the property, prepare a CMA, or collect listing materials is business mileage when the trip is for your real estate work.
Buyer showings
Trips between properties, buyer consultations, inspections, and walkthroughs should include the client or transaction context in the purpose note.
Open houses
Log setup, host, and teardown trips separately when possible. Add the address and note whether the trip was for signage, supplies, staging, or lead follow-up.
Inspections and appraisals
If you drive to attend an inspection, appraisal, final walkthrough, or repair follow-up, record the property and business purpose.
Client and vendor meetings
Brokerage meetings, lender meetings, photographer appointments, contractor visits, and title-company trips can be business mileage when tied to your work.
Business errands
Supplies, sign pickup, lockbox errands, printing, mail, and bank trips are easy to forget. A weekly review catches them before they disappear.
Trips to be careful with
- Normal commuting from home to a regular office location.
- Personal errands attached to a business day.
- Family trips where you happen to answer work calls.
- Vague prospecting drives with no address, route, or business purpose.
- A mixed trip where the personal portion is not separated from the business portion.
Open houses need better notes than "open house"
Open houses are not just a sign-in sheet and a Saturday drive. They can include previewing the home, placing signs, picking up supplies, staging, hosting, post-event follow-up, and lead outreach. The National Association of Realtors describes open houses as a way for agents to connect with consumers and communities, which is exactly why the business purpose should be visible in your mileage notes.
If you use QR sign-ins, connect the event record to the same work context as the trip. That gives you a clean chain from drive to open house to lead follow-up.
A weekly mileage workflow for agents
Capture every drive automatically
Agents move between short appointments all day. Automatic detection is more reliable than remembering to start and stop a manual tracker.
Classify by client, property, or activity
A note like 'showing - 123 Oak St - Smith buyer' is far stronger than 'work drive.'
Attach expenses to the same work context
Parking, tolls, signs, lockboxes, flyers, and supplies belong near the trip context so your export tells a complete story.
Review unclassified trips every Friday
Fifteen minutes per week keeps the record contemporaneous and prevents a painful tax-season reconstruction.
Do not separate mileage from the rest of the transaction
Mileage is only one part of the story. Agents also pay for parking, tolls, signs, listing supplies, photography, cleaning, staging, client materials, and other business costs. When those records live in separate apps, your tax export becomes harder to review.
A better workflow connects trip, receipt, client, property, and task. That is why TikTraq is built as a field-work system for real estate agents, not just a mileage-only tracker.
Use this record format
Need a starter format? Use the free mileage log template or the deeper realtor mileage guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can real estate agents deduct mileage for open houses?
Open-house trips can be business mileage when the drive is for your real estate business. Keep the property address, date, miles, and purpose, such as setup, hosting, signage, supply pickup, or follow-up.
Is driving from home to the brokerage office deductible?
A normal commute to a regular office location is generally personal commuting mileage, not business mileage. Rules can be different when you have a qualifying home office, so confirm your situation with a tax professional.
What records should an agent keep for mileage?
Keep the date, destination, business purpose, miles driven, and annual odometer context. For agent work, add property, client, or transaction context when possible.
Build the log while you work
TikTraq helps agents capture trips, scan receipts, connect open houses, and export cleaner records. That means fewer abandoned spreadsheet rows and fewer mystery drives at tax time.