sharecropper status when setteling farm estate

Dear Sir:
My question is: My mother is expected to die in the near future, she owns 124 acres of farmland. Presently the farm is being farmed by a friend of the family on a sharecropper basis. He farms for 50% of the corn yeild and 60% of the soybean yeild. When my mother passes on, and the heirs want to settle the estate and ultimately sell the farm; how does this affect the current sharecropper's rights?? do we have to wait until the crops are harvested before selling the farm? Are we allowed to sell the farm immediately ,even though the sharecropper derives part of his livelihood from farming mother's land? I do not believe there are any legal papers defining the arrangement of the current sharecropper's arrangement with my mother. My father had this all arranged on a "Gentleman's agreement" I believe. My father is deceased. The will says nothing about this either.
Your advice will be appreciated. My mother lives in Illinois.
Thank-you. rnbeach

If at all possible, the practical thing to do now would be to discuss the situation with the friend and decide on a course of action. I am guessing you do not want this to end up in court. Even without a written agreement, the friend may be able to argue that there was some sort of verbal agreement with your mom which you may or may not agree with. I would guess that it would be extremely difficult to prove, but it would seem far better to head off the problem now. I would think that the friend would understand that the farm is going to be sold after your mom's death. You may also want to strike an agreement wih him now because it may actually be in the estate's best interests to have him continue to do some farming after your mom's death. I would think that it might not be a good idea to have the farm dormant for a significant period of time. In any case, it is good that you are thinking about this now -- an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure. Good luck.

I am a brother of mbeach and have a further question regarding your comment that "it may actually be in the estate's best interests to have him (the renter of the farm) continue to do some farming after your mom's death. " If the heirs of the estate (six children) decide to allow the renter to continue farming for a while, what are the implications regarding settling of the estate? Would there be problems selling the homestead, associated property, and the parcel of land containing the homestead? Also, since the Will distributes assets of the estate equally to the children, if we allow the rentor to continue farming I assume the estate's share of crop income would be divided equally into six shares among the children; if so what are the tax implications to the estate and the children? Is it as complicated as it sounds?

Thanks!