律师说要等六个月？

鉴于这是美国事宜，我用英语回答。

The issue depends on a few details

(1) estate executor

who owns the house, if the husband owns by his own name, the wife and children has to go to probate court.  The probate court administers all affairs of estate (遗产）and inheritance（继承）。

In the case of intestate inheritance (非遗嘱继承），the wife can go to probate court and ask the court to appoint her to be estate executor.  With the court's appointment, she can deal with all issues regarding the estate of the deceased person.  

She could sell the house immediately after becoming the executor.  

But ....

(2) It may have tax advantage for the heirs (继承人）to sell the house after probate (继承程序）。

This is because a quirk in federal capital gain tax rule called step-up basis.   You can google yourself.  Basically, the heirs might pay less taxes (1) when they inherit the house and sell it, (after 6month + probate) than (2) the executor sell it before they inherit the house (next few month).  

This is true if the house appreciated more than 250K over the husband's ownership.   If the house doesn't appreciate that much, there might not be any capital gain due because of primary residence capital gain exclusion. 

So I assume the lawyer have all the information and made a determination that the house needs to be inherited rather than sold outright.  It might be better for the wife and children to wait until the probate process finishes.  That takes 6 months or more. 

(3) House might be forced to sell when there is debt to be paid.   

最后，不知道你是这些人中的哪位，如果你说清楚，我的建议会更加具体一点。