Deciding if a Property is A Good Investment or Not!

[Austin Wayland]

Hey everyone, I am newer to real estate investing and have been doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts. I have 1 rental property that is cash flowing around $700/mo. It was the first house we purchased, lived in it for 1.5yrs with the intention to buy another house and rent that one out. It is going great so far and we love our new home.

I am looking for another investment property but since the strategy is completely different from the first one I have had some issues deciding if its a good option.

We are looking in a new area that is seeing massive growth, Woodruff, SC, if anyone knows the upstate South Carolina areas. We are looking at a new build community that is in phase 1 of building (only built 25 out of 350 planned homes). They only allow 1 investor per 100 homes and we have made a connection with the agent for the community. The issue I am seeing is that the rent in the area is low since it is still up-and-coming. 

The house prices are not anything crazy but with rents being so low the cash flow just does not seem to be hitting any of the numbers that BiggerPockets talks about hitting. I know that appreciation would be great and rents should go up in future but still having issues seeing that. 

Would love to hear any feedback anyone has on this. Is the new build route a good route? We like the lack of issues that come up with them and the fact almost everything is under warranty. Any guidance would be much appreciated!