My SIL thought that she could care for my MIL (her mom) and a dozen other things and figured she could do it in a house, in a neighborhood beyond her income, using MIL's retirement money.

If a resident with a disability demonstrates that she needs one assistance animal to limit the effects of a mental or emotional disability and another to pull her wheelchair, approving two assistance animals would constitute a reasonable accommodation.It is not necessary for a tenant with a disability to utilize more than one animal for the same function unless a new assistance animal is being trained to replace an older, retiring animal.What if my housing provider only allows pets under 30 pounds?

I would like to get into owning rental properties for a little extra income and to build towards retirement.

I am getting within sight of retirement and need to build a safety net post economic downturn. 

Then two weeks later I get a notification that a retiring landlord Jay Hinrichs wants to give away a free duplex to a young investor in the area, whom can rehab the property, post pictures online for others to learn, rent the property, and donate $50 /mo to charity.

What happens if that tanking economy happens when I was planning to retire?

These are all different means of deploying your retirement capital, with different constructs, types of service, etc - but with the same basic tax-sheltered foundation.Once you have the plan type identified, speak with a few quality providers of such plans and be sure to get client references.

Andy, Solo 401k plan is not for everyone (you must be self-employed or own a small business without full-time employees other than the business owner(s) and spouse), however if you qualify for it - in most cases it would be a much better choice for most people (you don't need a custodian with it, you don't need an LLC to gain the checkbook control, you can borrow from your plan up to $50K before retire, just to name a few advantages).

Or are you using Real Estate as a retirement plan?

I should be retired by now what the hell happened !!