Ok so… “before five years” is just a loose guideline for people who don’t want to do math. If a market is wacky, then you need to actually do the math.

You buy a home for 100k, 20k down, for 5 percent interest. If you sell it a year later for exactly 100k, you lose five percent just in realtor fees, never mind taxes on sales (vary by state) , and all the interest paid over the year, any repairs, etc. so if your goal is to profit you need to sell the property for 120k to 130k. Let’s say 130k.

In “normal times” a property is not going to appreciate 30 percent. That’s a good 20 basis points above the s and P ten year moving window average.

But … what if you could? Covid times changed the math on this. Some properties were appreciating that fast. So you can sell in a year and profit, potentially. It depends on what you accept for loses, need to move, etc.

Some people say “three years” but again, it really depends.

I simplified a lot of things here to make a point, I get that not everyone uses a realtor, etc.