There is a small (<600 sf) house on the lot currently, which is in pretty rough shape. 

I'm thinking of buying this as a rental, renting out the house and fencing the back part and renew a lease to rent it separately.

Granted, I am a part-time flipper, but most houses I see the pricing does not make sense for what I have to pay for labor.  

The agent works "for free" until the house sells, so taking them out of the deal is theft, and immoral."

Great points, ZharaBirmingham has relatively steady and diverse rental demand, and I’ve seen many investors I work with have success with C/B class buy-and-holds.Location is key—areas near UAB, major employers, and popular suburbs tend to have the strongest rental demand, while C/D class markets offer solid affordable housing and Section 8 opportunities.

I’m currently house hacking in a duplex with a 130 yr old fieldstone foundation.

LTR and MID term are hot now as well, we have more people that want houses than houses to rent to them.  

You can still buy houses in small farm towns in MN for $25k.

Honestly, we just need more affordable housing... 

You can also start exploring a house hack to utilize the lower DP