I'll preface my comments by saying that I'm not an attorney or a CPA nor am I giving official legal or tax advice. I am an investor who's had many conversations with many tax professionals over the years.
With all that said, in my opinion, if you bought a property for investment purposes and had any corresponding expenses, they should be tax deductible even if no revenue was produced in 2012. Did you do some marketing to find a tenant? That should be deductible. Did you do any repairs or updates? They should be tax deductible. Insurance? Deductible. Taxes? Deductible. You get the idea.
If you don't deduct 2012 expenses on your newly purchased investment property on your 2012 tax return, when will you deduct them?
What I've heard from the tax pros I've hired in the past is that it's not a good idea to continue claiming a loss on an investment year after year without that investment ever producing any revenue at all. The IRS may eventually suspect fraud. From what you described, this doesn't apply in your case.
