Q: I live in Maryland and my father passed and left me his home I need to put the home in my name,how would I go about it ?

A: An estate needs to be opened, in the county (or City of Baltimore) where your father resided at the time of his death. Either your father had a will that named someone to act as Personal Representative or executor, or in the absence of a will or the person named not being willing or able to act, then any interested person can petition to open the estate. Once the Register of Wills issues Letter of Administration appointing a PR, then the PR follows through with the other procedures and eventually can either sell the house and distribute the proceeds to you, or has a new deed issued in your name. You as an heir would qualify as a person to be named PR, so you could be in charge of this process. When real estate is involved, it is advisable to use a lawyer to open and handle the estate, but it is possible to do this on your own. The estate forms are available from the Register of Wills website, as fillable pdf documents, and under normal circumstances you could make an appointment with the appropriate Register of Wills office at the circuit court to obtain help in filling them out and following through with the publication, inventory and accounting procedure required to administer the estate. Unfortunately, the courts are all closed through at least June 5, and although new estates can be opened, you will not be able to obtain much assistance from Register of Wills staff. You will need a lawyer to prepare any deed transfer, and there can be no deed transfer before the final accounting is approved by the court. Therefore, the best way to proceed is to retain estate counsel to assist you in this process. If your father has other assets, like bank accounts, etc., then attorney fees can be paid out of those assets at the end of the estate process, assuming they are sufficient.