From a sponsor's perspective all of the above are claims on profits or operations at various intervals during the project.  

Ill take an average deal with known people any day over great (on paper) deals with unknown sponsors.

I know many like to spread over many properties.. but when you do if the sponsor has a water landing your in trouble.. one note one investor puts you 100% control of your funds..

We have realized that commercial multifamily is probably the best for both the real estate sponsor/syndicator and the passive investor.

Ty generally you get the farthest by specializing in asset class and what subsector of it you wan to pursue.Example you can look at multifamily, retail, industrial, office, mobile homes, commercial land development, and on and on.Within each sector you can then look at for example if you want to do transactions, do property management, or tenant representation or landlord work for leases.Generally lowest return is property management, then leasing, then transactional is highest return, followed by pinnacle is usually syndicating deals as a sponsor and investor.So find a sector you really like and then daily work to become a world class expert at it.

Would the sponsor gain ownership of the members equity after they have been paid back?

Syndicate – this in my mind should be done by sponsors that have experience with small multi-family at a minimum.

The new SEC Reg A+ allows you to do that and there are a hand full of funds that you could look into practically all owned by sane developer and syndicator (he is also an author and lecturer) - look up www.migsif.com - that fund invests in the Bay Area and pays 8% and they actually focus on high end homes around $10mil - great market that actually does not get affected much by any drop in values (ask any realtor and they will tell you that Pac Heights dropped only 10% in 2008-10 recession) this fund buys the properties at 70 cents on the dollar and they add square footage and force appreciation - there is also www.SFIFund.com and www.UGFinc.com - Disclaimer: Our firm has dealt with the syndicator/sponsor of these funds and we have clients who invested in them since 2009 - we do not get any compensation if anyone takes any training, or if anyone or if anyone co-syndicates with the Sponsor or invests in these funds - none of the above is an offer to sell or promote any particular offering 

Otherwise, I really suggest getting with a small bank, credit union, brokerage or an originator and gain experience, have them sponsor you, you get your own license but work for them, much like Realtors do.

SPONSORED BY: ME.