In a seller financing deal I understand I can negotiate the terms, but would one typically see a higher interest rate than from a bank?

How does that get sorted? 

Then they come and slap mechanics liens, judgments and all sorts of bad things on the property that I still hold the deed on. 

There are numerous national QI services and that is all they do and our fees typically cluster in a small range. 

Appreciation investing is dangerous and speculative, sort of like betting on sporting events. 

Not your typical deal :)

At the time I wanted to sort of dig into personal finance and investing....so I downloaded a podcast app onto my handy dandy smartphone and started entering in different keywords into the search bar and adding random podcasts into my list to try out and see what stuck.

You may want to consider this sort of strategy.

The legal consultations, PPM/subscription agreement, etc. will cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars alone, which is why syndication is typically used for larger deals that can support the cost.3.

If you were instead trying to do some sort of lease/option from the sellers on the front end, that would be different.