If you don't care about point #1, I take it from what you said there is no written will and everything is basically verbal. Legally your ain't entitled to shit, only his wife is (seriously, depending on whose name is on the deeds. Children are not legally entitled to any inheritance if there is a surviving spouse). Lawyers will drag it out and everything will get sucked up in legal fees. You end up with zero cash, zero assets, and the family hates each other.
I watched this happen between my aunts and uncles when my grandparents died. It was ugly as sin, took more than a decade to resolve, and in the end the only people who got shit were the lawyers.