New member from Chattanooga,TN

[George Randall]

Hi all - what a wealth of information I'm finding here. I feel like I've just stumbled upon King Solomon's Mines! But, I suspect you all know that already!

I've always had an itch for "flipping" stuff, but never the guts to go large. My previous endeavors have been buying smalls (store closing inventory, etc.) and reselling for profit. All VERY part time. Now, I'm a laid-of 50-something who's been searching for another job for nearly a year and realizing that now's my opportunity to really scratch that itch and go to work for myself. I think fix-and-flip is for me, but I'm still studying. I've read a few blogs, been to a courthouse auction to observe, and now found this great resource. 

My career has been in IT where I've honed skills in people and project management. I think these skills will serve me well in flipping, but otherwise I have no real estate investing experience (aside from my own home). I'm looking to learn a lot about selecting properties, estimating repair costs, minimizing tax impact (using retirement funds), estimating repaired resale value and another topics I come across that I need to know about before jumping in. Looks like this forum is the perfect spot for all of the above. I'm looking forward to making lots of great connections here.