For more than 20 years, Marie Shelton rented the same three-bedroom house in Charleston, West Virginia. Today, she owns it.

“I raised my kids in this house. Grandkids too,” she said. It’s just blocks from her office at the West Virginia Department of Transportation, with a big backyard and multiple fireplaces that she decorates for Christmas and in the fall.

Shelton’s path to homeownership started with an ultimatum: Her landlord had decided to sell the place that she called home. If she didn’t buy it, the landlord said, she would have to move.