Does the Warren Buffet method work in Real Estate?

[Drew Y.]

Warren Buffett when asked about his time horizon for investments. He answered with "Our favorite stock holding period is forever.” 

That got me wondering about real estate as I know folks in the boomer generation that have never sold a building and have done amazingly well just maintaining and renting out their assets over 50+ years. Their rents to equity in the buildings are not the best, but they have low to zero debt, and don't have to worry about the rental payments to cover their debt loads and have equity lines available when opportunities become available. Their investments have become truly passive. 

I am a lot younger in my investment career and empire building, but have properties purchased in 2009  that are in that scope. Purchase for 60Kish and now valued at 225-250K with rents around 1,250 monthly. They are paid off in full with equity lines available if needed. Wondering if the adage of buy and hold forever works the same for real estate as it does for equity investments. As it seems like once the depreciation schedules have run their course it would make sense to 1031 out to re start that depreciation clock, or would it be better to take the advice of Warren and keep the asset forever.