My mom just passed away, her lawyer says that he needs money to pay her bills etc till the house is sold?

is this typical??? The house is her only asset and he does not want to even go to probate till some money is put aside to pay her bills till the house is sold??

Go to probate get yourself appointed executor of the Estate. You should not be giving your money to keep the estate going. It is not typical and you should talk to another attorney and get that persons opinion.
You may just have the wrong attorney.

Also, in most states, the attorney is paid by a percentage of the size of the estate. If you pay off bills, etc, it increases the size of the estate by lowering the amount of liabilities. He gets more, you get less, plus you paid the bills.

I'd be very careful about this. Her creditors can file claims against the estate for any money they are owed. When the house is sold they will all be paid from the estate. The only exception is if there is a mortgage on the house that is being sold. I would keep up the payments on this but would probably do that directly without involving the attorney.

Good Luck!

If she has no other assets, and there is no money to pay outstanding bills, ovbiously there will be pressure to sell the house fast, and you will be stuck taking what you can get.

There should be a max of a month's worth of bills... everything should be turned off. Even so, you should not be providing money to do this. It should come out of her estate.

Yup, that would be typical. Without any other assets someone needs to come up with some money.