Is my uncle a RE investor?

[Jordan L.]

Christmas dinner with the family. Talked with my uncle. He has a rental that used to be his primary residence. He bought it in the mid 80's for 175,000, paid off. It's now worth about 650k(no equity extraction). He rents it out for 3k a month(though it must have been less earlier). It's only been vacant one month in 14 years. He lives off this, SSI, and his 401k. His primary residence is paid off. He doesn't spend a lot of money. His wealth increases every month even though he doesn't work.

Now of course he technically is a RE investor in as much as someone who got company shares is a stock investor. Would you consider him a RE investor?

In large part this example is why I'm trying to get into RE. If he had just purchased one maybe two additional homes like this he'd be doubly/triply as set as he is now.