Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

You are an owner of the real property and you must sign the agreement in order to sell the home.

I havev not seen the entire will and I don't know what has been done or not done with the estate. The will may have been written so as to allow the executor to manage the property. While the will provided the land was to be sold, the fact is that the US has been in an economic downturn for quite awhile. These circumstances alone, especially if the property needed work, may hae dictated that an immediate sale was neither possible or practical. And if the home needed work, it may be that fair market value for rental was not possible to get either. There are many factors which you do not address in your post which you do not discuss.

I suggest that you sit down with a probate lawyer, after you get a copy of the probate file from the court, to review the will and other documents and determine if what your brother has done was proper. I do not see a problem with you signing any real estate agreement now - in fact, there would be a proble m if you were not asked to sign. And I don't know why your brother did not do this previously. He should have unless the estate was still being probated and the will gave him absolute discretion to deal with the property,. It may be that the estate is now closed and the property has gone to the heirs, i.e., you and your brother and any other siblings.

I don't understand why you feel that by signing you are liable. Liable how? Every sale of real estate is accompanied by an offer to purchase. Assuming that the agreement has no real contingencies in it, the offer to purchase is that - the seller offers to sell the land and the buyer offers to buy the land. After the inspections are done, the seller conveys the land.

If you have any questions, posting here for free advice is not a substitute for having the contracts reveiewed by an attorney. If the estate has been completed and you really don't have an issue with the administration of the estate, then go to a real estate attorney and pay for review of the offer to purchase agreement.