Selecting your market will be interesting as I'm sure you have insights into the military and those types of housing arrangements so perhaps a niche there to tap into based on your existing expertise....but regardless to address your question you are not too late, and investing is a spectrum, ranging from flipping to buying stocks in a REIT, and it all works, just depends on your preferences and style really.

There is almost always a complicated spectrum, with nuance and sophistication involved.  

Also, the situations of various investors include a broad spectrum.

But that's going to take you ~10 years to hit the $5k/mo goal unless you can improve your investment capital base.So those are the extremes of the spectrum.

This house would make a nice little rental or a fix and flip but the seller and I were on opposites sides of the spectrum.

You see that across the spectrum of means in my age group and older. 

With all of that said, I'd say your idea is basically a step toward investing in unsecured debt (on the spectrum of secured to unsecured).

- https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/CosIorg/file/asset-protection-spectrum-diagramHow a fully implemented asset protection layout might look. - https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/CosIorg/file/asset-protection-structuresLet me know if have questions or want to chat further - I can give you my investor perspective.

I'm obviously still in the research phase - not ready to buy just yet.You hit on one of the big debates in real estate investing, and it really comes down to philosophy: the "all cash, no debt" camp versus the "leverage everything, maximize ROI" camp.On one end of the spectrum, you've got the investors who operate purely on cash.

And there is really no protection in case they missed anything which is another reason we steer clear of them.Mold remediation costs can run the spectrum - get multiple quotes.Encapsulating the crawlspace is something you can do yourself as long as it is not a really low area.