I was able to resolve this issue after reading the post by DanielV01 about Section 162. There is some discussion of Section 162 in this link: https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2019/aug/qbi-deduction-for-rental-real-estate.html
According to that link there are three avenues to get the QBI deduction:
"The final QBI regulations offer three avenues for a rental real estate activity to be considered a trade or business eligible to generate QBI: (1) the rental activity qualifies as a Sec. 162 trade or business; (2) it rents to specific related parties; or (3) it satisfies the requirements of a proposed safe harbor."
I think the confusion is caused by misleading questions in TT about safe harbor. It provides three options:
a- Elect to use safe harbor for the property on its own...
b- Elect to combine the property with other properties as part of a "real estate enterprise"...
c- None of these apply.
When reviewing these options it sounds like aggregating the properties requires to select option b which requires the safe harbor statement. But actually option c can be selected and the properties can still be aggregated. QBI can still be claimed per Section 162 (if the aggregation of your properties qualify). That is what I did and e-filing became available.
