Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Texas

Re: putting house up forsale

You say that the land was in his name, and both of your names are on the mobile home (which could have been attached to and now be a part of the real property or which could be personal property, depending on what option was chosen when it was purchased).

It is unclear what exactly you mean when you say that you had the deed to the property put into your name, because only the true owner can deed (transfer) a property to another, so if the property was not already owned by you, you can't file a deed that would have any effect on the ownership of the property. Also, under the Texas rules which allocate the property of someone who dies without a valid will, when your deceased spouse has children that are not your natural children, then those children would inherit half or all of his interest in property owned by hium, depending on if it was your homestead. However, any children who were adopted may have lost any such interest if he truly had his parental rights terminated as would happen when a formal court ordered adoption is finalized.

The best answer I can give you is that if you, both of your deceased spouse's sons, and his daughter all signed deeds to a new purchaser and if you could find 2 disinterested parties that knew the family history of your deceased husband for an affidavit of heirship to be drawn up and signed by these two individuals, that should be sufficient to sell the house, assuming there are no outstanding loans on the property, or liens or other interests turned up by a title search.

I would highly recommend that you take this issue to a real estate attorney and/or to a title company that routinely handles mobile homes in the county in which the property is located, and that has an attorney familiar with probate and affidavits of heirship. This is not by any means a simple question with an easy answer, but more like a law school property exam question with more facts and research being required before anyone could give you a definitive answer.