She can outline in her estate plan for you to eventually inherit it, but if you're taking ownership during her lifetime, it's a gift or sale or some other transfer but not an inheritance if the person is still alive.Also, as I said before, you may want to look into property tax consequences as well. 

If you decide to keep them on month to month make sure you make a contract with them outlining all the rules you want them to abide by so they know up front what you expect from them, and any breech of that contract you will terminate their agreement with a 30 day notice.

Most of what you can do will depend on the type of note you have and what you have outlined in it.

Otherwise I would only receive a percentage of her portion of the proceeds.If it's possible for me to act as an agent without being one, can someone point me to a contract outlining my fee structure?

I am not a broker, so I use a broker to originate our loans, according to the process I outlined above.I do recognize the privacy issues with recording a note and accept this as a vote against doing it.

I attended a Real Estate course which outlined  a 20 year cycle and thought maybe there was articles or books  on it.

@Max Powers with almost all shopping retail centers they have CC&R's  (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions) that outline that with the signing of a tenant that a similar tenant cannot interfere or be leased too.  

If not using cash or hard money, your contract should also outline a financing contingency, which has it's own timeline, such as:Make application for financing within 3-5 days of contract acceptance (this is the next step after getting pre-approved.

It is a legal contract, usually for one year, that spells out line by line, similar to a lease, exactly what is expected of the property management company, and what the fees will be, maintenance threshholds and more.  

With prices here, most CA borrowers don't have this problem, even now in the Inland Empire and Apple Valley.Rather than rewrite it or quote, you might check out this related thread which outlines many of the questions you could ask an HML and a few ways to ensure they are honest.