It's a good supplement to BP, books, etc in that networking locally is an important aspect of meeting the local players, forging potential partnerships, learning about opportunities, etc.  

A seller carried note, in this case, is an opportunity for her to supplement her retirement income.I'm going to sandbox here, obviously it's unlikely you will do exactly this, but it's a starting place:If you want to play the long game, and are yourself young enough to do so, you could pair the seller carried note with peppercorn rent specified in a lease of $1/mo that lasts until she dies.

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It may not be a bad idea to consult with a local lender and see if they could provide a supplemental loan or a Line of Credit to help finance the costs. 

There is no one size fits all method, there's no real wrong answers, as long as one is committed to doing the things necessary to improve their life, I believe real estate can supplement any goal or lifestyle.

Who for decades followed the rules as directed, put significant %'s of their income into the hand's of those exact stock's/fund's, to find they NEED to supplement these "returns" with active income JUST TO SURVIVE.     

Unlike a lot of folks I actually love my 9-to-5 engineering job and in no rush to get out of it, just supplement active income with passive.

It may not be as big of a deal for you if the real estate activities will be more of a supplemental income stream (for now).

If you run your business in an ethical, BUSINESS-LIKE manner your odds of getting involved in a lawsuit are pretty darn slim.I would suggest that a much better investment would be to explore taking a few BUSINESS AND CONTRACT LAW classes at your local University, and supplement that with a REAL ESTATE LAW class that's in conformance with the Continuing and Professional Education standard for RE Agents in your state.The purposes of these classes is NOT to turn you into a lawyer, but it's like the Law classes generally taken by Business majors and MBA candidates in Universities; to teach you WHEN TO CALL A LAWYER.all cash

But, those thoughts have entered my mind to have about 20 properties that will supplement retirement.