Probate versus life tenancy what are the pros and cons for my mother's house?

My father passed away recently and had done no estate planning except to have all of the assets in my mother%26#039;s name. Worked out this time since he died intestate, but it will not be the same for my mother when it is her turn. We convinced her to write a will, finally, but now we are in the stages of fine tuning and we wonder if putting the house in a life tenancy for her would be better than letting it go through probate? She is on fixed income -- social security only. She needs increased cash flow and the house needs repairs. Her credit is terrible as Dad tried to finance their lives with debt and she signed on the dotted line without understanding. So our idea was to give her life tenancy and then refinance / purchase the house with enough cash to repair the home and reduce the payment by $500 a month. However would the cost implications(taxes, court fees, closing costs) be too great to do this now or would they be greater at probate?

Probate versus life tenancy what are the pros and cons for my mother%26#039;s house?

I don%26#039;t know anything about probate, but you can run into problems with life tenancy. You cannot do anything with the house as long as she%26#039;s alive (living in it or not). If your mother goes into a nursing home, assisted living, etc. and you find you need to sell the house or something, you won%26#039;t be able to.