Real estate investments can make you wealthy. If you can swing a down payment and convince a lender that you can easily find renters who will maintain the property and cover all, or most, of the monthly mortgage, income property can be a marvelous way to fatten your net worth. Assuming that you don't have higher-cost debt that could be paid off first, you'll want to pay down the loan as fast as possible so that your equity increases.

A commitment to keeping your income property up to code, making sure rent is paid, and that all maintenance and other issues are taken care of is not for everyone. The biggest issues keeping most of us from investing in real estate are the time commitment and the down payment for income property.

The responsibilities and risks you have as a landlord include these:

• Keeping the house in a habitable condition: Small and large repairs must be handled promptly, which could catch you up short. As you build equity, you could initiate a home equity loan to cover repairs that would only slightly increase monthly mortgage payments. However, you would take on extra risk — if home prices fall, or if maintenance is more extensive and costly than you expect, you could end up “upside down” on your property (owing more on your mortgage than its market value).

• Screening potential tenants: You are legally prevented from discriminating based on your tenants' ethnicity, country of origin, skin color, religious affiliation, handicap, gender, or marital status, but you can — and should — choose among potential tenants based on their present income, stability, credit history, personal cleanliness, and references. The risks can be many and varied — from facing extended evictions to dealing with abandoned household goods or destruction of property.

Still, if you can afford it, income property can be a very profitable investment. Once you own one property for a while and have learned the risks and advantages of being a landlord, as well as accumulated equity, you can leverage the purchase of another property through a home equity loan on the first property. If you are managing one property well — and maintaining your own home and paying your debts promptly — lenders will often work with you on future acquisitions. Even Donald Trump started small!