You've become one of the 'village elders' here on BP based on the fact that you've seen and heard most of what's been posted; and you've posted over 1200 times yourself, so you've obviously been party to some great conversations.  

His elder mom passed away and his dad was moving in with his son. 

@Sam Elder keep in mind David and Frank are relatively new to the market and don't have a long track history here.

Since the seller is elderly, ensure you she discuss her transaction requirements with her attorney and accountant.

I've had concrete two story stairs collapse; a full room plaster and lath ceiling fell due to slow roof leak, narrowly missing occupants; kitchen waste line main was blocked, several floors above were draining out of our kitchen sink...in a million dollar plus 2 bedroom condo...for a couple of days, as the people below were out of town also so there was nothing reported; I've had Tenants on a few occasions walk out the door leaving EVERYTHING behind; a well known Bail bondsman vacated a property that had apparently let multiple pit bulls live and crap throughout the multi-million dollar house; Military Tenant who was separated from wife, but she came to visit, they fought, SHE got a TRO against him, and of course she had no income and paid no rent for the several months it took to evict; Another Tenant, quite elderly, lived in a walk up and had two yappy little dogs.

She is elderly and has owned the home since 2001.

Whoa, yah what @Nick Elder along with many others said seems right on to me:  you got to house hack, and for me,preferably if your starting out, if you can get ahold of a 4 plex owner occupied, low income/low downpayment loan and house hackit! 

I have a soft spot for the elderly and think with the higher lot rents 1 bd, 1bth is all most of them want or need unless they have families that visit often.

At a community meeting for seniors an attendee brought up our letter and asked the law enforcement representative if this was some sort of scam to take advantage of the elderly. 

Case in point heres a storyIt was $200,000 house but it was grandma's house they're in their 70s and it's free and clear and they really needed updating in their kitchen and a little bit of fixtures in the bathroom they kept it in meticulous shapeIt really had a nice layout but it was kind of small you know built in the 1950s so the closet space wasn't great but they had a nice big attic and a good size garageI always try to have a fiduciary duty to the seller and help that seller get a good solutionThe house was listed with an agent and because it was needing updating it didn't sellSo I came in and talked with the sellers and basically talked about all their options we could rent it outtry listing it again at a reduced price to maybe 180 or so but still a lot of buyers don't have vision to be able to say "oh if I spend 10,0000 that it will fix the problem" they just don't have the visionBut what I need to hit home with them is if they don't fix the problem so then they need to look at another possible solution which was selling it to an investor flipperThis is not a major rehab, this is a minor rehab where in 30 days you can tear out the kitchen, put a new one in and update some bathroom fixtures for 10,000 and now you can compete with all the other $200,000 houses for saleJust for giggles I have them call "we buy houses people" and they came in and did 65% ARV minus the 10,000 and offer them 120,000 for the houseAnd I explain to them that the investors have two sets of closing costs and they have to make a profit so that's why the number so lowAnd I asked the elderly couple what if we did a joint venture and I brought my money and fixed it and then resold the property and they would make a lot more for working with meGranted because it was free and clear I bought it on a private mortgage with a joint venture agreement which basically said that they would give me a private mortgage with no payments for six months I would do the work and then I would resell it with an agent list it at 98% of comps, advertising brand-new kitchen with full one-year warrantyBottom line here it cost about 10% to sell with a sales price of 200,000 and then I use private money for the 10,000 in kitchen and then I charge the $10,000 JV fee so they netted about 170,000 on the houseHow do you like to make 10 grand ethically and honestly and help people get a good result?