I'm not adverse to putting in a little work owning RE, it's just I feel recession risk is very real right now, and there could be some great deals to be had in the not too distant future. 

Sounds like that 20 year tenant needs to file an adverse possession claim!

Even in the midst of all your adversity you kept pushing forward, it would have been easy to start feeling sorry for yourself and making excuses.

Her real estate assets are actually much smaller than her stocks / bonds, and she's actually not concerned if the real estate gets sold off after her death if there are no adverse tax consequences.  

Here in MS. you can shoot people for the latter...That's almost as bad as the Adverse Possession laws.

The dictionary definition of a squatter is "a person who unlawfully occupies an uninhabited building or unused land".You have something known as "squatter's rights" (or adverse possession) which is: "A squatter's right is a legal allowance to use the property of another in the absence of an attempt by the owner to force eviction."

There could be other investments, other than real estate that could also help achieve my financial goals ( note: I am adverse to the stock market.So I welcome any leads for good financial planners with vision that extends beyond selling me the latest mutual funds- had my fair share of those.Thanks for reading!

Usually, a remind a tenant of the written agreement and ask the tenant how they plan to get back into compliance.  80% of the time they offer prompt correction, the rest of the time we work out something (temp fee for additional car, add someone or a pet to lease at a cost, change to property etc) that brings the tenant into compliance eventually and works for us both.Final note, -I'm comfortable in court, not adverse to litigation, and can file most any landlord tenant action myself.   

If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

It seems like many folks get unnerved about the potential adverse tax effect of a real property sale because they only consider the transaction in isolation rather than taking into account their total situation (carryover capital/passive losses).