Hi

[John Millet]

Hello, My name is John and I'm from New Orleans. I am totally new to Real Estate investing and I came here looking for more information on how to do it. I'm a computer programmer by trade, but I'm tired of the corporate rat race and want to get into Real Estate full time. So basically I'm leaving my life long career to start something new. I'm pretty handy when it comes to construction. I built a 200 sq ft. addition to my current house entirely by myself. I plan to do most if not all of the work on my flips/rebuilds myself. 

So basically I'm here to soak up as much information as I can and just learn from other's experiences; both successes and failures. I've been interested in doing something like this for a long time, but I've been too afraid to pull the trigger. I think it's time. I'm almost 50 and need to do something for my retirement. My 401k went down 6% last year and that was very discouraging. I need a better source of income.

So here I am, just reading all I can and learning as fast as I can.

Any suggestions on what my first investment should be? I don't have a lot of assets to borrow with (about 15k). Where do i start?

Thanks.