Still, it sounds much the same as stocks and shares ie. the shareholders only get paid from left-over funds AFTER the companies have taken the cream of any profit. 

If passive do you want to own directly by yourself, in a partnership, or silently in a syndicate as a shareholder??

I've recently setup an LLC to buy rental properties. When I contribute money to my LLC (not as a loan) to either buy real estate or deposit cash reserves into the LLC bank account, is this classified as income for the...

EQR has no plans to redeploy those proceeds into more property acquisitions, they want to distribute it out to the shareholders.  

Do you know the difference between a shareholder and member?

@Jerry PadillaThanks.The contractor company is an S corp and I am the sole owner/shareholder.  

To setup a company, you need to have a shareholder agreement (if you're partnering with someone) and this again can be downloaded from the internet and filled out.

Should I buy the property with an LLC where each of the investors are members and have it written such that if time expires and they want to foreclose that the property is to be sold and the returns are split amongst the LLC shareholders based on % invested in the deal? 

(S-corp, LLC's, shareholder agreements, employee contracts, etc.)Any referrals would be appreciated!

(S-corps, LLC's, shareholder agreements, employee contracts, etc.)Any referrals would be appreciated!