Also, if current tenant has a security deposit, make certain it's transferred to you. 

From a technical perspective I also run into a lot of investors that: 1) Don't understand the basics of title, transfer, assignments, endorsements, deeds etc.

You would need to transfer the properties from your personal name into an LLC first.Then you could get a commercial/portfolio loan for purchases and/or refinances.Conventional lenders (Fannie/Freddie) will not loan to an LLC.

Seller pays commissions and splits the transfer tax with buyer.

Can she transfer incremental ownership interests to her own name and report the pro-rata expenses and income on a schedule E?

Right, I haven’t claimed depreciation thus far.My parents are still alive so I guess it would be considered a gift and if I’ve read correctly, their cost basis gets transferred to me except we have no idea what exactly that is.

Buyer will be losing money on closing and holding costs, transfer taxes, etc. 

Keller Williams has some of the best training around and you can go ahead and get started and then transfer.

As we retire from the military, and most likely in Augusta area, my goal is to transfer the TX and KY property to Augusta in a 1031 exchange in about 2 years (which I don't know much about yet) and manage the properties ourselves which will remove the property manager expense. 

Many leases have language that make allow them to expire if the property transfers.