Deceased brother with $5000 credit card debt has no assets other than a homestead, willed to me, his sister.

Thanks to those who helped me with responses. You were very helpful. Betita.

zytrhr is right. The house will have to go through probate and creditors will be notified to submit claims against the estate. I do not know what the outcome would be. If you wanted the house, you would probably have to pay the claims. Since you plan to sell the house, anyway, what freqflyer suggested -- selling the house as is -- sounds like a good idea to me. Much of this depends on if a little improvement could get a much higher price and be worth your while. If the house has been neglected for a while, which is often the case, it would probably cost too much money to repair and may be best to sell as is.

So sorry for your brother passing

You're not responsible for the CC unless you were a cosigner. You can send them a copy of the death certificate. They'll close the account(s) and will probably credit any interest charged after death. They'll probably send a letter asking for who will handle his affairs. If there is a probate, they'll probably make a claim against the estate

On caveat, if the house goes through probate, which it probably will, it will be listed as an asset and would probably need to be sold to pay debts.

So sorry about your brother's passing.

Regarding the house, get an appraisal from a licensed appraiser, then sell he house "as is". Trying to fix it up can be very time consuming and costly. Tradesmen want to be paid when the work is done.

I sold my parents house "as is" as my parents had done very little updating in the 35 years they had owned the house. Worked out great, and I didn't have any headaches or time crunching like if I had to do any repairs or major updating.

Contact the credit card companies and see if you can work out a payment plan where so much is paid each month.