re: Anyone buy then rent out condos?

It can be good depending on how much you pay for it. The best situation is if you lived there. My husband and I bought one side of a duplex condo in a very nice community and lived here 2 years. Then we built a house that we lived in for 7 years sold & moved back to the condo. We are about to build again. So our condo serves as a rental when we are in a house. We keep it mainly for retirement... income and to move back to if we ever want to downsize. Note though, we bought it in 2004 prior to the huge inflation from Katrina. So we are making a nice profit. Something else to consider... buying in an extremely nice neighborhood with a very nice unit will allow you to charge more rent but you do not get long term renters as you would for a cheaper rent. They usually stay about a year. We have never had a bad tenant. Key to that is: screen, screen, screen.
Good luck!