Fresh out of prison

[Dexter Tiggs]

I'm 30 years old and just got out of prison after 5 years I have 10k saved up in a bank account from working my last 2 years at a transitional center I've been researching properties and real estate is what I want to get involved in what are the best steps to take for my success bc im not going back to prison thanks family

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Dexter Tiggs:

I'm 30 years old and just got out of prison after 5 years I have 10k saved up in a bank account from working my last 2 years at a transitional center I've been researching properties and real estate is what I want to get involved in what are the best steps to take for my success bc im not going back to prison thanks family

 Hi Dexter,

I've done a few loans for the recently incarcerated. Hopefully your credit is doing ok, if not that's probably step 1. 5 years + 2 years = 7 years = there's a good chance debts owed prior to incarceration may have fallen off entirely, meaning you might have "thin" credit rather than "bad" credit, in which case you can just google "how to establish credit" for guidance there, going from "thin" to "established" can happen pretty quick.

Two years of employment history is a fairly standard requirement. But it does not have to be the two most recent consecutive years. I've done loans where it was six months on the current job, plus X year work gap in prison, then we had to document 1.5 years of work history from prior to incarceration. There is a chance you do not possess paperwork from that long ago, in which case hopefully the former employer still exists and has records, you can also request tax returns transcripts from the IRS website or by filling out paperwork and mailing it in.

Interestingly, banks don't do comprehensive criminal background checks (just for financial crimes specifically, though I've never personally worked on a loan where that came up, guess I'm not on the Wolf of Wall Street's speed dial). But many/most landlords do comprehensive criminal background checks. This means there are scenarios where it's easier to get a big fat giant 30 year mortgage than rent a place for a year... go figure.

Those are the big ones that need to be navigated, other than that it's pretty standard FTHB stuff. Save, seek and maintain gainful employment (if hourly and you take time off b/c you are sick, do the paperwork to get the sick pay, so it doesn't look like you took an unpaid vacation - paperwork matters more than verbal claims made! I'm given to understand it's different behind bars, keep in mind "how will the paperwork look" in general), don't miss credit card payments, ideally you want the down payment funds in a bank account and not under your mattress (the term we use is literally "mattress money," and it generally cannot be used), etc.