and when I echo the $upload_dir, I get
/home/users/web/b2019/moo.shoresrentalscom/public_html/properties/16/
(I added public_html to the upload_tmp_dir but the folder I created is in the properties folder of the sites root, maybe I dont need the public_html part)
Are you running with full error reporting turned on? If so, there would either be an E_WARN level event generated by move_uploaded_file (indicating a permissions issue), or not (indicating an upload issue).