New (would be) Investor in Texas and Louisiana

[Armando Pastrana Jr]

Hello all.  I apologize in advance for the long intro post and hope you will read through and provide some wisdom.  

My name is Armando Pastrana and I am determined to start actively investing in real estate, but I am in most ways completely new to it.  I am by profession an intellectual property lawyer and I have been living in Sweden, London and in the US (long story, but lots of commuting involved).  I do have some accidental experience already in that, having lived in lots of places, I have bought homes in some of those places and have kept them as rentals.  That said, after spending a few days on the forums here on BiggerPockets I have gone back and analyzed those properties and I don't love what I discovered!  Additionally, the properties are all over (two-flat in a suburb of Chicago, a duplex in Austin, TX, a single family home in Ruston, LA and another single family outside of New Orleans.  All rented except the one in New Orleans that I use as a second home and place for my parents when they are in the US.

My job in Europe has now ended and I am in a state of transition--don't really want to return to the corporate world, but think I may have to.  I would really love to have the opinions and advice of those on BiggerPockets that may have faced similar issues (or just those brighter than me of which I think there are many here).  Here's my situation.

I just turned 50, have had high paying jobs and a spouse with also a very good job. However, have not saved as much as I would want to, though I do have some savings. As I mentioned, I want to get out of the corporate world and would ideally like to be able to do REI full-time using it both for income and long term financial security/investment. I have about 350K in cash and about 900K in retirement funds that I could access, I think tax and penalty free by setting up a ROBs (a method I am investigating that via the tax code apparently lets one use retirement savings by setting up a C corp and funding a company by buying stock in it with retirement funds). I also have the aforementioned homes that together have about 250-300K in equity. The rents barely cover mortgage and expenses currently.

So, my ask:  What would you recommend doing with the above (do you even think its doable) to both provide income to live on and long term investment?  BTW, my wife would keep working in this scenario, though her job is outside of the US and so may not be helpful for US financing purposes?  Or, as I seem to be concluding, do you think it wiser to get another job myself and enter more slowly (since I will also have a full-time job)?  In either case, what type of property would you recommend getting started with?  Am I to old for this?!

Thank you all in advance.  I am really happy to have found BiggerPockets and be a part of it going forward and I look forward to interacting with many of you!

Armando