What's the worst that can happen?
Just go out and buy a house on a 30 year fixed rate loan. Then rent it out for market rates.
Chances are that if you can absorb the cost of the occasional repair like a water heater through your regular income, in 15 years you're going to have a nice net worth gain over what you would have done if you didn't jump into real estate.
If it was much more dangerous than that, everyone would be losing their houses.
Opinions?