Father died, no will, lots of debt

[nairb22]

My father just died 4 days ago. My mother died 5 years ago. Neither one had life insurance. My brother has lived with them for most of his 48 years with the exception of 3 years service in the Marines. My brother is disabled and bringing in around $550.00 a month Social Security Disability with no other assistance. There is no mortgage on the property. Both my father and my mother are listed as the owners. The assessed value of the house and property is listed as just under $20,000. My father had a car that might possibly be worth $500. No loan on it and my father is listed as sole owner. He had maybe $500 in his checking account and his was the only name on the checking account. This is all his assets. He might possibly get $1,200.00 on July 22 which is his Social Security but I assume we would have to figure out how to get that back to them since he is no longer living.

My brother just told me my father had at least $25,000.00 in credit card debts. $6,000.00 was covered with credit protection insurance, but the rest wasn't. There is no way my brother or I could pay for these. And we understand that we are not responsible for our father's debts. My question is will my brother be able to live in the house, or will it be taken by the credit card companies to recoup some of their losses?

I know the typical answer is "call a lawyer" but we just do not have the money for that at the moment. My brother read online that in Iowa if a person's assets are less than $25,000.000 that probate doesn't have to be opened, but I have no idea if that is true or not. Even so, I still have no idea what to do.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I understand it is just advice, nothing concrete.

Thanks in advance.