QBI is for a "Trade or Business". Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut definition of "Trade or Business", which is why the IRS created the 250 hour Safe Harbor election. The IRS created that election so people that qualify and confidently claim QBI, and not worry about if they will be audited about it.
As you may have read, the easy version of the QBI Safe Harbor election is that clearly keep track or all income and expenses for that separate property, and if the TOTAL hours (spent by you, contractors, management companies, etc.) spent towards that property is 250 or more hours, it qualifies for the Safe Harbor election. If if you only have one property, it seems quite unlikely that 250 hours would have been spent on it.
If you claimed QBI without making the election, you are claiming it is a "Trade or Business" according to Section 162 of the Tax Code. As I mentioned before, there is no clear-cut definition of that. However, if you only have one property, it is much less likely to qualify (but not impossible).
If you claim QBI without the Safe Harbor election, yes, you are required to issue 1099s (when applicable) because you are stating it is a "Trade or Business", per Section 162 of the Tax Code. There are penalties for not issuing them or issuing them late.
