I am assuming that they indicated some reason to you that they may want to sell in the past?

According to the BLS, in December the two cities had similar unemployment rates with Birmingham at 5.2% and Indy at 5.4%, although media reports seem to indicate that job growth in Birmingham has been slower than expected.

She will start flipping houses this year, and wants to minimize taxes, but also wants to reinvest all after-tax revenue from flipping.

How do you minimize vacancies between semesters?

@Coy Barnes  The fact that 3 of the 5 tenants have no lease may be indicative of how tight of a ship the current landlord runs.Make sure to verify what they pay in terms of monthly rent, with no leases they can tell you any amount. 

Always minimize your taxes as much as possible,  but a big tax bill means you made a bunch of money. 

For example, I looked up a property that I was interested in on Zillow, and the price history indicates that it was listed on the mls last year, but there is no info on the agent/brokerage.

I dont consider retail properties on the MLS to be a good indicator of potential cap rates for SFH in Houston (or any market).

The bank does the closing for a minimal fee.

Whether you think that is great or not is a "slumlord indicator" IMO.I prefer that things remain in good repair and get reported when they are not, so I don't stipulate that tenants must pay for ordinary repairs.