You cannot report the house as a rental property since you apparently never made it available for rental use.
However, you may be able to treat the property as investment property if you never used the property for personal purposes after the transfer.
Unfortunately, the investment expenses incurred (if property is treated as an investment) would be miscellaneous itemized deductions on Schedule A and those deductions have been eliminated, for the 2018-2025 tax years, by tax reform (the TCJA).
