If you are looking to acquire the other half, there are ways of doing the transfer that minimize capital gains tax for you mom. 

One common advice I have noticed is purchasing a duplex or multi family home in your area or at least 30 miles within proximity.

Complete remodel, added half bath, added new systems.

When half of the responses are DON’T EVER and half are GO AHEAD NO PROBLEM that should make an intelligent buyer pause and think about how that could possibly be.

You could certainly ask them although I would note, they'd almost certainly never figure out you were gone especially if the mail, utilities, etc. were all in your name and you were in fact there half the year or so. 

Trade skills are lucrative these days, can easily lead to you building your own business, and will put you miles ahead when it comes to flips and rehabs on properties.

I would appreciate it very much if someone who is involved in real estate in Memphis, either as a realtor or as an investor, would private message me so I could have a text conversation and ask my questions.The land bank is an interesting place, currently there are 2,770 properties for sale in the land bank which almost half of what is currently active in the local MLS.

Say for example the standard commission for a new tenant is 6% with half going to your agent and half the tenants agent then that would be 3% going to the tenant agent.

This helps to partition a half-bath next to the back entrance.

If you are open to any location and have that much cash, I'd look somewhere a bit closer like SLC metro, Reno, Vegas, Arizona, or other growing markets in the western half of the US over Columbus.