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Updated about 14 years ago on . Most recent reply
Is my uncle a RE investor?
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.
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There are two kinds of investors (RE or otherwise) and they are: 1. Active investors and 2. Passive investors.
In case 1. (as I am), I operate a full time (can be part time) RE investment company in which I buy many properties. These investments are the main source of my income. In case 2, a passive investor relies on others to do the daily operations of the business, they only invest their capital and let the others do the work.
That said, if a person buyes one home and rents it out, I would not classify them as a RE investor. They have one RE investMENT.
I own some stock, but I would not classify myself as a stock investor.