in my town, some attached homes are zoned as 2 halfplexes... others are zoned as duplexes. 

For my first deal I want to BRRRR a triplex in my town. 

What area of town?

I also took down some walls and built in a pantry into the kitchen.

Consists of 12 acres, two homes 5 bed each built in 08 and 09.

I also read posts by others online who said that this is very common in large cities like Austin/Houston and college towns and that they advise to just keep renting the room and not cause any disturbance and that it will be fine as long as the landlord gets paid the rent monthly.

I have had tenants watch nests being built above thier door and not take out a can of spray.

I have a piece of land in Pensacola FL- It is 1.5 acres in the middle of town.

House was a log home built in mid 1800's with 2 additions built onto it over the years. 

I'm not sure where you could have heard that Birmingham is a dying city, unless they were talking about the town in Michigan (or England?).