[cynwoody]

What do you end with if you divide both sides by 4 to start?

Same answer.

4 - 5x = 1.5x + 1
3 - 5x = 1.5x
3 = 6.5x
6 = 13x
6/13 = x

[MHGinTN]

It does appear the problem was miss copied, to get a different answer to drop out; the first ‘4’ should read ‘-4’, to get the answer dictated.