The paid off house is not as much of an anomaly where they live in the midwest compared to on the coasts, to be honest. In the area homes range from $50-120k today, and in the wider region even the palatial guilded era estates in the rich gentry suburb are going for about $125 a sq foot or so.

Of course, they ended up on good circumstances to make all of this possible, but imo these circumstances they ended up with aren't all that rare especially in the area they live. The returns could backfire, sure, but there are investment strategies that are pretty safe too. I think robinhood is offering 4.15% on cash currently, for example.