I look forward to hearing more from you on this, and that you have family in this is interesting. I can guarantee there are "issues" with your paper work that you and baby brother aren't even aware of and one of those you touched on in your reply, appropriate names. They always have a way of creating a "legal fiction" with the names, that way if you ever do end up in court regarding the property you the living man have no standing in the matter. I have seen that done all the time, and the courts make sure that it works for the banks or mortgage in almost all the cases. The thing about these real estate transactions is that these are all legal documents and require full legal names and full legal signatures and seldom are those ever on the documents.