Depends.You require the tenant to maintain heat in the home and if they don't, it would be considered neglect because the lack of heat could allow the pipes to freeze.

She also allowed utilities to lapse and the house was at risk of freezing.

You can then ride both the gains from the stock market AND have the upside of having substantial RE portfolio.The one issue with this is the bank can 'call' the loan at the worst time -- during times of financial distress, stock market crashes, credit line freezes, etc.

But in the area it’s possible the water freezes in the winter.

No , Unless they put a freeze on taxes , maintenance , supplies and pay for tenant damages .

Do you feel this needs to take place in more places? How do you feel about the effects of gentrifying neighborhoods?

No accidental kids freezing to death.

Is there a place to search and see if there are loans against my Tax ID/EIN and is there anything I can do to protect it going forward similar to a Freeze on my social.If this is in the wrong section mods, feel free to move it

. - what will you do, if one year after you sold your flip, you are getting sued by the buyer because of some defect or issue, real or imagined, known to you or created by a sub/contractor, or fraud (like, because you made the mistake to advertise your flip for sale with "everything new" and the buyer discovered you didn't change the entire plumbing) and the judge freezes all your bank accounts till things get sorted out?

You can't deduct any thing while it's your home- and I would freeze depreciation for that time since it's being taken out of service for longer than normal renovation time for your purposes.