The link below is an excellent guide in this respect, but you should be advised that reporting as a real estate professional has no impact on rental losses unless you materially participate as a real estate professional.
See https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/33-Real%20Estate%20Professionals.pdf
As an aside, the terms would be passive versus nonpassive income/loss. If you materially participate in your rental activities as a real estate professional, net losses would be treated as nonpassive (which means you could deduct those losses from other types of income).
