Is there a way to force someone to sell the homes in an estate if they weren't left to me?

You need to open a probate file in your county. Unless there was a will that says otherwise, you should petition to be the executrix (called personal representative). As execurtrix, you can force sale of the homes. If there is already an estate and you re not executrix, you can schedule a hearing with the judge and ask him to force a distribution. Estates are required to be closed in a year, so it should be wrapped up. Once you get your share of the houses, you can force a sale through a partition action, a court proceeding which requires a sale of property if one co-owner requests it.

I strongly recommend you hire a competent attorney to review your matter. If your mother died 6 years ago, her 'estate' should no longer 'own' anything - either by way of a trust or through probate, the property should now be owned by the beneficiaries and not her estate. Let's say there is no trust and you have not probated the estate - you need to probate the estate to resolve these issues. If you have probated the estate, this should have been closed by this time, but if not, the personal representative needs to provide an accounting to the court detailing the money the estate has received and expenses - you can then object to the accounting if this is not being properly administered. Again, you really need to hire an attorney to review these issues and find out what your options are.