It definitely depends on the county.
Some counties don't want to subdivide land into parcels that are too small for agricultural use.
By default a mortgage on the whole property will transfer to all the parcels. The bank will want this unless you can show that the property that retains the mortgage is worth more than the value of the mortgage.
If you are not planning to develope right away you have an option to get your name on the title without assuming your brothers debt. There are two main ways to hold title to real property. Tenants in Common and Joint Tenancy.
Joint tenancy means that you share your interest in the land. Tenants in common gives you a specific interest.
It has been a while since I looked at this stuff but I think tenants in common allows you to mortgage only the specific share that you own. Although, again the bank will be loath to relinquish their interest in the whole title unless it is only worth a fraction of the value of the land.
Another consideration with subdivision applications is that that is the only time the county can make demands on the land. The conditions can involve taking a large chunk of the land as an environmental reserve, taking municipal reserves or road right of ways. They can also ask you to build a county grade road or provide services.
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