Explained in plain words
You inherited the home; the paper still belongs to someone who has died. Nothing moves — no sale, no loan, no transfer — until the title does, and every state runs this through its own mix of death certificates, affidavits, and probate papers. The good news: several states built a shortcut for exactly this, because it happens constantly.
Florida's statute (319.28) lets a surviving spouse or heir transfer by operation of law without formal probate in many cases: an affidavit plus a certified death certificate at the tax collector. Texas uses a Statement of Inheritance with probate papers or a recorded Affidavit of Heirship. Jointly titled homes with survivorship are simpler everywhere: the survivor plus a death certificate.
Where the estate must speak first, the personal representative's papers (Letters Testamentary or Administration) are the key that opens every filing. If the decedent's title itself is missing, the estate applies for the duplicate first — owner-of-record rules bend for a documented estate representative — then signs over. Expect the same mandatory waits as any duplicate (North Carolina's is 15 days).
A certified death certificate (order several copies — every office keeps one), the estate papers or affidavit your state wants, photo ID, and the home's serial numbers for every section. Then run the deceased-owner branch of the checker for your state's exact order of operations.
A death in the family often leaves two paperwork problems at once: this home's title, and the money side — accounts, unclaimed funds, and the document chain an heir has to assemble. That second problem is what our sister site works on. MoneyLeftBehind's free heir-claim material → — a free next step, no purchase involved on either side.
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General information about how the process works in your state — not legal advice. For a contested eviction, a park-sale fight, or a title dispute with a lienholder, a local attorney or legal-aid office is the next step.