In the meantime, what we are thinking about and doing just makes sense from a marketing, total cost of ownership, and simply 'right thing to do' perspective.

Was there a living trust set up for ownership for the property to be transferred to the survivors?

--------------I'm not a resident of the City of Philadelphia so I don't have that item #5 from your post to deal with, but I don't believe it has anything to do with real estate ownership of rental property; if it did, then it would be taxing the rental income twice - maybe that does happen to those who live in the City, but I suspect that is not the case.

Should I create one the minute I hold ownership?

No ownership or equity.  

Our LLC is also registered with the state, so ownership of that could be verified by public record too.A better approach is to be honest.

Are you looking to take over ownership?  

most of the ownership is through LLC or INC and on top of that most are managed by outside companies who do not really want to connect you with the sellers.so your goal needs to have a strategy of getting through all the gate keepers directly to the owners. 

Now we use different accounts when there are different ownership groups and equity shares involved in the ownership of the property but everything runs through 1 management account, 500+ units and counting it's the most efficient method. 

What I need help with is structuring the business to pay our profits through dividends.Here is what I have so far: We will structure as an LLC with everyone having equal ownership.