Renting and Real Estate

Back in my home state (New Jersey), my cousin manages rental properties. He knows that I’ve been saving money for a long time, and he has recently started asking me to invest in a new property with him. He has places picked out for me to look at whenever I’m home, and he’s very enthusiastic about the idea of pooling our resources. I’m not so sure about investing in real estate right now, though – especially when I see the places he’s looking at, which tend to be drafty and in disrepair (he says fixing these places up would be easy, but I don’t know enough about that sort of thing to say). What do the experts think: am I missing out on a big opportunity here?