What have I done wrong?

Helen, in my area, is is not uncommon for a person to sell the house "as is" as there are many house flippers looking for such a property. The houses are livable but you feel like you walked into the 1950's [I kinda like that style].

I work for a small real estate company, and we rarely ask the Seller to modernize the house. Maybe do some small fix ups where a handyman can come in and repair in one day. The houses here do sell quickly "as is".

Like, who wants to go through the hassle of updating and not be there to enjoy the house for a couple of years. We, as caregivers, have enough on our plate without rebuilding our parent(s) house !!

I did "as is" with my Dad's house and he got a good price. If I had spent funds to update the house, Dad wouldn't have gotten back what he had put into the house.

My grandmother's house needed a ton of repairs before we could sell it for a "fair price." We found out all the real estate people wanted us to fix it up and sell it for "what it was worth" because they wanted that inflated price as a "comp value" used in appraisals in the neighborhood. Most of the repairs would not have returned us the same money we paid, but it would have helped out the neighbors who were applying for mortgages!

There's nothing wrong with selling the house to an investor below market price - so he has to deal with repairs, workers, and the like. You don't want to deal with people who might steal from you either.

You

Work with your local office of aging - there are probably services that you are not aware of that you can use. Not sure about the home repair, but maybe some in home help. Have you asked your friend what she is using?