Some drawbacks are being impersonal and not having a generic business card for everything.  

No, not 1 singular mention of the trillions kicked out to help supplement people, apparently that was National Beer Money day. 

We specialize in real estate agents, investors, contractors and also do more generic tax preparation and consulting.

If you run your numbers well, each property should give you a monthly cash flow which you can either use to supplement your own income or use towards the acquisition of additional properties and scale in this manner.

We are close(ish) to retirement -- maybe 5 years -- so our first inclination is a buy and hold strategy with the aim of building cash flow to supplement eventual retirement income as well as equity that would likely be useful 15-20 years down the road.

My parents recently asked me to look into some real estate investment options to supplement their pensions.

That's perfectly fine and fair-- just keep the assets to supplement your life style in the most risk-averse and conductive to living a free life. 

I have never used that service for a trust, but I know NOLO for rental documents is a little light weight and other generic online services for LLC setup etc can cause companies to have to change their articles later.

Just like most everyone else, I really enjoy my job and where I am at in my career but I would like to supplement CALPERS with REI, and give my wife the option to not work if she chooses.  

I sent them a generic offer letter.