We have one nearby that has been a rental for around 17 years and it is not bad, the 3 am phone calls can be annoying, but the income covers the taxes and leaves us with a bit for other things. We are just about to close on another in South Carolina and we will be using a management company to handle the calls and collecting rent. For the SC home, we expect to retire there someday and hope to let the tenants pay it off (or a chunk of it) before we go down.
Don't gamble all of your recent new found money, let a bank take some of the risk, by allowing the property to be paid off by the renters (and keep some for yourself). This also allows for some nice tax breaks since your income is offset by the interest paid on the mortgage.
If you have a 10-15 year mortgage, when you do decide to retire, you have one of two options,
A) You have a fully (or mostly) paid off asset that you can sell for a chunk to be applied to an annuity or other investment vehicle
or
B) You have a property that will continue to give a positive income but in your retirement years you will have to start paying to have work done since at 70 years old you may not be able to do as much as you did when you were in your 40s-50s.