I'm new in real estate and have deductible expenses for 2015 but no real estate income to deduct from: how can I carry forward the expenses for 2016?

[Critter1]

You can't ... expenses must be deducted in the year they are incurred and paid. However, start up expenses may be amortized and capital expenses can be depreciated over a longer period. 

The nature of your business will have good years and lean years but the regular expenses will be a constant. This is not surprising to the IRS so just file an accurate return and keep good records. 

Intuit has a new Quickbooks version for the self employed that may be useful :

 http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quickbooks-self-employed-takes-the-hassle-out-of-accounting/

If you have net self employment income of $400 or more you have to file a schedule C in your personal 1040 return for self employment business income. You may get a 1099-Misc for some of your income but you need to report all your income.  So you need to keep your own good records. Here is some reading material……

IRS information on Self Employment….
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Self-Employed-Individuals-Tax-Center 

Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p334.pdf 

Publication 535 Business Expenses
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf 

[TaxGuyBill]

The losses may be able to be used to offset other income that you have.  If you don't have any income, the losses may create a "Net Operating Loss" (NOL), which means your tax return has negative income.

If you do have an NOL, you have choice to (1) amend the 2 prior years to use the NOL, (2) use Form 1045 with your current return to claim a refund as if you had amended the prior two years (TurboTax does NOT support this form), or (3) make an election on your current tax return to 'waive the carryback', and the NOL will end up on next year's return (you may need to manually calculate it and enter it on the next year's return).