Most buyers prefer to get a property empty.

It's mostly an older demographic and they want "Price over Pretty" which means, they prefer to pay less for an unremodeled house than pay for new finishes.  

Hi Brandon,If I understand your question correctly, I can tell you I have a strong preference for renting duplexes.

Most tenants from my experience in property management prefer a lease rather than month to month as it offers them security of a home for that term.

I prefer to use my equity line for rehab purposes than for new purchases.  

Upland Brewery has a great tasting room in SoBro.

To make a long story short, I concluded my preferred strategy was to buy and hold long term and pursue the development of a rental empire.

I think the crux of my concern is that i would prefer to buy and hold and repeat, but I get the impression he and his wife are concerned about being able to make a clean/concise split at the end of the "sale" which would require a flip. 

Do you advise having my real estate agent verbally make these to the seller and then we put whichever in writing they prefer?  

Renting when you first arrive would definitely be preferable as you can get an idea of which location you would like to purchase in.