You bet!

You will need to only work with licensed and insured service providers in order to be on the safe side.

With your massive work ethic, I bet you can find creative ways to be of value to those more experienced investors, and that can turn into money or social capital. 

When are you considered "safely behind" a legal entity should a lawsuit occur?

Hiring an attorney can be both the safe choice and the profitable one - whether it's closing costs or taxes, we almost always end up saving our clients more money than it cost them to hire us in the first place.

That’s probably your best bet, avoiding a direct conversation with a lawyer about the issue and just motivating the client.

I bet you would also benefit from speaking with a property manager in your area for advice on what works well for a rental there, especially in case you want to think about continuing to invest and hold the property after your son-in-law moves out.  

@Nicholas UrcuioliFirst of all you wouldn’t value a three unit building based on Cape Rate.Four units and under are considered residential and you would use the price comparison approach on an appraisal.Cap Rate is purely a measure of risk and never a measure of your actual cash on cash returns or future gross profitPlaces like San Francisco Los Angeles and Manhattan have way more renters (demand)  then there are vacant units (supply).This makes these markets extremely safe because the risk of the whole building becoming vacant is almost 0Markets with higher Rates like Ohio or Alabama must pay a higher return on investment because they are riskier markets with much higher vacancy rates and demand and Manhattan have way more renters parenthesedemand

i bet the guy settles for a few grand.. or the 10% clause..  

I'd do a 1031 into a syndication which achieves the following1) Tax deferral via the 1031 - why pay taxes when you don't have to, let the unrealized taxable gain continue to work for you2) Passive - by investing in a syndicate you can move from being an active investor to a passive investor3) Returns - in my experience you should bet better returns by investing with a syndicateGood luck!