First step is to read about other peoples' experience in this space by looking at the top rated real estate investment books on Amazon.

Second you will have to do the math to understand your budget, taking into account all your expenses such as mortgage, taxes, HOA fees, etc.

Then you need to allocate a vacancy rate (you won't always have it full) and you also need to think about how to keep a good maintenance budget because things will go wrong.

Quality of tenant is a huge issue so make sure you do background and credit checks as well as check references. There are management companies who can do all this for about 8% per month which might be worth it. Again, all this should go into your planning budget.