If my father lived died, allegedly with no Will, what are my rights to his estate?

My father died 02/09. My step-mother has a gambling problem. I was told that he borrowed against life insurance, placed a second mortgage on his house, and took a job (after having retired from the railroad). She told me that there was no Will nor any money and that she was going to have to sell the house to pay off the debts, including back taxes. Now she has called saying my brother (who lives in TX) and me (I live in NC) need to sign a quitclaim deed as according to MN law. Since she’s not on the deed the house is actually ours. She also said that we would get about $2000 a piece for this, and that she has to give $30,000 to her brother toward the new house that he has bought for her. However, after checking it appears all tax payments are up-to-date. Now, we really don’t trust what she’s telling us but being in other states has made things difficult. Neither one of us want to spend a lot of money to hire attorneys.