And this low demand could be a couple of factors, either a rural location with low population density or the area incomes are not high enough in order to prevent a rent burdened scenario. 

Do we focus on flipping, (currently we have actually been trying to do this, but we physically can't find enough contractors in our smaller market <100K population to do that much work).

. -- lots of factors to consider (including your personal strategy), but here are a few high level metrics to compare the most populous zip codes in HuntsvilleWelcome to drop me a message if you are interested in checking out the full report 

I am a first-time investor, I'm looking to buy a duplex in a smaller town in Utah, the town's population is around 8.2k.

There are a lot of markets with solid job markets, strong populations, solid rent growth, but when you are talking ONE property, unless you are considering highly rural areas, it likely doesn't matter.  

There is strong rental demand because of growing population, job market, and the booming tech scene. 

Buyer go to open house directly.We have this option in Minnesota now, and it looks like in 10 other states that I am aware of (California, Texas, Florida, Virginia, mostly the big population states).

Great macroeconomics - lots of job growth, population growth, and companies developing here.

This diversity provides a certain level of stability to the job market.Population Trends: The population has seen modest growth in the last decade.

Is this a highly populated area, are there lots of jobs, are people moving to the area or is the population declining?