In US tax deduction exclusion for foreign expats, one important criterion is for foreign housing Exclusion / deduction, which is applicable only for self-employed people. The housing exclusion for self-employed people contains the annual housing expense minus the base housing expenditure. The base housing amount was determined on the basis of a person’s foreign earned income exclusion.
The cap usually is at 30% of the maximum foreign earned income exclusion. This limit, however, varies as per the location of your overseas home. You should make sure that you have correctly calculated your foreign earned income exclusion.
There are various legal and not so legal formalities in expat tax preparation, and rules keep changing every now and then. You may be really good in what you are doing but you may not be aware of all the ins and outs of US tax system. Chances are you may end up spending more than you should. So it is better to be safe than to be sorry later on. Your attempt to save few bugs by not hiring expat tax advisor may cost you several hundred dollars later on. Think of long term gain, not of short term goals.