Even though you did not have rental income during 2016, if
you made your property available for
rent during 2016, then you can deduct your ordinary and necessary expenses
for managing, conserving, or maintaining the rental property.
Once the property was available and advertised for rent, it
became a rental property and your expenses then become rental expenses.
For more details, see the following TurboTax article: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Rental-Property/Rental-Property-Deductions-You-Can-Ta...
Also, take a look at IRS Publication 527 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527/index.html)
and for more tips: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/rental-income-and-expenses-real-estate...
