I could have a principle and live in a falling apart money pit in a declining neighborhood or move to a brand spanking new home in a neighborhood on the way up.

Part of the problem is how hard it is to sell a home in the first place. I'm not interested now, but for a while I was looking at needing to move states, and that was going to involve selling my home and buying (or renting) in the new location. And all the math was saying that anything other than getting really lucky with a sale just before moving was going to cost me a LOT of extra money and be a drain and a hassle on top of all of the stresses involved with moving to a completely new state.

I really hate the idea of selling to these "we'll buy your home fast" shops, but I have to be honest that had I needed to make that move, it would have been a very real possibility.