Is my mother in law being dishonest with us?

My husband and I have been living in his grandma’s house who passed away years ago. It has been in the estate of his grandma but the house was already paid off. There’s no mortgage on it. His mother decided on a price to sell it to us and we paid her that amount about 8 months ago. She divided that amount up among her siblings. Then we waited for word from his mom’s lawyer on when we could sign the papers and have it officially in our names.

8 months later and many nagging phone calls my mother in law finally told us that he could go sign the papers tomorrow and the house would be in his name. His being the important word here.

I was a bit shocked. She had asked for my social security number and other personal information saying the lawyer needed it to add my name to the deed. This was months ago. The plan all along was to have the deed in both our names. We are married after all. We believe we have equal shares to everything. So when he questioned his mother as to why it’s only in his name, she explained it would be a bigger hassle and take more time to add my name. She said we could just add my name at a later time. Well…I’m not buying into this. I know very little about the process of owning a home or names being added to deeds but am I right to assume that adding my name at a later time would be more difficult than simply doing it now? Does adding a name cost money and require paperwork? It seems to me that she might have purposely avoided telling the lawyer to put it in both of our names. Maybe she’s trying to protect her son?

I told my husband not to sign anything until we get more information on the situation. If adding my name in the future is as simple as his mother makes it sound, why isn’t it simple to do it right now? I hate to think the worst of people and their intentions but I’m also trying to make sure I’m protecting myself and that we aren’t being fooled.

Facts:

-We live in NY state.
-The house has no mortgage.
-We paid an amount established by his mother in order to take over the house 8 months ago.