Cash flow question, plus more?

[Ken Holifield]

At the risk of sounding like a complete rock, here is my question...

What is the formula for figuring out if rental property is worth it? I realize this will vary for different areas, mine is TN if that helps. I've seen many different answers on here that never really explained it all the way out for a newbie. Let's just say I buy a $100,000 sfh and my mortgage payment (piti) is $1,000 a month. Considering everything, what do I need to get in rent per month to make this a positive cash flow property and also what would I need to get to make this a VERY GOOD positive cash flow property? And, how did you arrive at those figures?

My situation (condensed version):

I have already secured financing and have been looking for houses to fix and flip. I've been looking for about a month with no real luck. This is partially due to the fact that I am being overly cautious because this would be my first deal. Just in the past few days I started thinking that maybe I should be looking for rental property and if I happened to find one to fix and flip then ok. I thought it might be a little easier to find a property to rent and this would get me in the "game" and give me some experience. Is this a naive view? Any and all thoughts, ideas, wisdom or criticism is appreciated?

Thanks