How do two family members acquire a deed to a house paid off after the owner passed away?

Please accept my condolences on your loss. As for your question, however: If the sole owner of a property has died, then someone needs to figure out what needs to be done with the owner's estate (I am going to assume that the owner held the property in his or her own name, and not through any trust or LLC- if this assumption is not correct, then there are even more factors than I will discuss here). If the owner had a Will, the Will needs to be offered for probate and an Executor appointed for the estate. If the owner did not have a Will, then someone needs to get appointed as the Administrator of the estate, and the Administrator will be able to handle the property title as well as the other estate assets. Once known assets and debts have been determined, the Executor or Administrator (who I will now refer to as the "Personal Representative or "PR") can either (1) sell the property, if it's desrable to do so, or (2) distribute it to the beneficiaries (if there is a Will) or the heirs (if there is no Will) after all debts, taxes, and expenses have been paid.   No one should have paid off the mortgage on the property before a PR was appointed for the estate. Paying off the mortgage gives you no rights with regard to the property. If someone needed to make payments while the estate was being opened, someone should have made those payments only as needed. If the estate turns out to be insolvent, the people who paid off the mortgage may end up losing money, because the equity in the property may not be enough to pay higher-priorty estate debts and then still repay the mortgage amount that was paid off by the family members. However, now that it's already happened, you'll need to hope for the best and deal with the estate. If the property would not come to the two famiy members who paid the debt as the heirs or beneficiaries, or if the property would need to be sold to generate enough cash to pay off all debts, taxes, and expenses that are payable out of the estate, then the two family members who want the property may be able to purchase the property from the estate. The amount they've paid towards the mortgage can be used as a downpayment if more will be needed. If the family members would be the heirs or beneficiaries who receive the property anyhow, and the estate has enough other assets, then they may just be able to receive the property as a distribution. Either way, however, to actually transfer the title, the PR will need to execute a Deed (either an Executor's Deed or an Administrator's Deed) that transfers the property from the estate to the two family members, and that deed will need to be recorded in the county Superior Court (assuming it's a GA property). I strongly advise whoever wants to be PR to get the help of an experienced probate attorney. There are a lot of pitfalls in probate. Also, please do NOT try to do a deed without an attorney's help- you can end up with property that you don't have clean title to that way.