This topic comes up a lot. And, from all the posts on the internet, it seems like a bad idea for the amateur landlord. It seems it only pays off (and even then, just barely) if you have a large building where good tenants can potentially weigh against all the bad ones. If you are just buying one place, for one renter, your chances of success are slim. You cannot rely on the income being there (rent will not get paid and not on time) and just a few months of going without rent or without a tenant can set you back to negative numbers. Rental laws are in favor of the tenant (for better or worse). If you cannot do the maintenance yourself, then you are not going to come out ahead. It will suck up a lot of time and energy. If you are wanting this as a back-up plan for income, then seek other backup plans; as you will not be able to rely on this, far from it. You'd actually need a backup plan for your backup plan because your back-up plan will need resources probably from income from what you are doing now.

From what I have read, you would be better off just investing your money.