For First-Time Buyers, Tempting Prices but Tougher Rules

Your parents need to decide whether to try to keep the house or let it go.

They could keep the house, but they would have to pay the mortgage, real estate taxes and insurance, and make sure the property is maintained. If your parents feel that the house will be worth substantially more in a couple of years, they should keep it, try to rent it and see how the real estate market performs then.

If they are not inclined to keep up the payments or don't see the value of the property increasing for a while, then they could try to sell it with the hope that it will bring in more money than is owed. Their other option is to stop payments to the lender and let the bank foreclose.

In general, if your brother's only asset were the home, the bank would not be able to get any additional money owed to it from other family members. So your parents wouldn't be on the hook to repay the balance of the mortgage.

Start by figuring out what your brother owned and what he owed when he died. If he truly owned nothing but the house and your parents don't want to keep the property, foreclosure might be a good alternative. For more details, and perhaps other options, consult with an estate lawyer.

My mother's longtime companion added my name to the deed to his property in 2005. He used a quitclaim. My mother died six months ago in a traffic accident. Her former companion now wants to remove my name from the deed, which I am contesting. Can he do this legally?

A quitclaim deed transfers interest someone has in a piece of real estate to another person. Once the deed has been recorded (assuming this process is done properly), the ownership interest is transferred.

My understanding is that your mother's former companion cannot remove your name from the deed without your consent. Whether or not it turned out to be a good decision, he gave you that ownership interest three years ago.

Unless he can prove that the quitclaim deed was falsified or in error, that he didn't know what he was doing or that you (or someone working for you) coerced him into doing the transfer, I don't think it can be undone.

But here's what I'm wondering: Why do you feel you deserve a piece of his house? Did your mother and her longtime companion intend for you to have an interest if something were to happen to her? What were the reasons your name was put on the title?

I don't know his motives for adding your name to the deed, but he did it. Still, he and your mother weren't married, and if your mother had a financial interest in the house by contributing to the purchase, maintenance and upkeep, you might have been entitled to inherit some of what she owned.

Your issues are rather complicated. If your mother and her companion owned the home jointly, her companion would have become the sole owner of the property on your mother's death. But if they owned the home in common, with each owning 50 percent, you and your siblings, if you have any, would have inherited her share.