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STRATEGY · 2026 → 2031
The Five-Year Map
Jermaine Fields · built Aug 20, 2026 · revisit every six months
The thesis in one line. Notary work stabilizes the month. Origination buys the property. The VA benefit gets used twice, not once. Each property funds the position to acquire the next.
The engine — understand this before the timeline
Three income sources, three different jobs. Confusing them is how five-year plans die.
| Source | Job | Ceiling |
|---|
| Gig driving | Covers today. Buys time. | Hard. Trades hours for dollars. |
| Notary / Meridian | Stabilizes the month, builds a real business asset | Moderate. $15–85 a job. |
| Origination / DSCR Insider | Buys the properties. This is the wealth engine. | High. One deal can exceed a month of everything else. |
Every hour spent on the content engine is an hour spent on acquisitions. The Investor Minute and the articles are not marketing — they are the funnel that funds Year 2 and Year 4.
1Aug 2026 → Aug 2027 · Stabilize & qualify
Milestone: mortgage-ready. Two years of filed returns with IRS transcripts available, and reserves in the bank.
- File 2023, 2024, 2025. Non-negotiable — a VA lender pulls transcripts via 4506-C. Tell the preparer a VA loan is coming; how deductions are elected changes qualifying income.
- Meridian Signing operating — GBP ranked, Yelp live, booking taking appointments
- DSCR Insider content engine running weekly once NEXA approves the format
- Originate Missouri investor loans — income and market reconnaissance in one motion
- Credit rebuild continues
- Watch St. Louis County and Memphis inventory weekly. Inventory is thin — 12 county listings under $200K as of Aug 2026 — so the alerts matter more than the browsing.
- Set a savings number and a date, not a vibe
The gate. Nothing in Year 2 happens without the tax returns. Everything else here is optional by comparison.
2Aug 2027 → 2028 · VA property #1
Buy: 2–4 unit, up to $200K, St. Louis County or Memphis. $0 down, funding fee waived. You occupy one unit; tenants cover the note.
- Entitlement charged: $50,000 at a $200K price — about 24% of your pool
- Screen MPRs on photos first. Condition kills these deals, not the rent math.
- 2-unit properties skip the self-sufficiency test entirely
- You are relocating. VA occupancy is a real requirement, generally within 60 days. This is the year the plan asks something of you.
St. Louis is the stronger of the two because your Missouri license turns neighbors, agents, and contractors into origination clients. In Memphis you'd be an investor only.
32028 → 2029 · Cash property #2
Buy: sub-$50K value-add, cash, in the same market. Rehab, lease, then DSCR cash-out to recycle the capital.
- No lender, no seasoning fight on the purchase — cash wins off-market deals
- DSCR refinance qualifies on the rent, not your tax return
- You originate the refinance yourself. Your own commission on your own deal.
- Capital recycles into the next one — this is where the BRRRR engine starts compounding
By now you've lived in the market a year. You know which blocks are unrentable at any price — information no spreadsheet was ever going to give you.
42029 → 2030 · VA property #3 · second-tier entitlement
Buy: a second 2–4 unit, $0 down again, on remaining entitlement. Same two markets — St. Louis or Memphis.
| Entitlement math | 2026 basis |
|---|
| County one-unit limit | $832,750 |
| Guaranty pool (25%) | $208,187 |
| Used on property #1 | −$50,000 |
| Remaining entitlement | $158,187 |
| Zero-down buying power | ~$632,750 |
This is the piece most people never learn. The VA benefit is not one-and-done. You keep property #1 as a rental, relocate for a legitimate reason, and buy again with $0 down on what's left. Funding fee waived both times, because of your rating.
Occupancy must be genuine. A second VA loan requires a bona fide reason to relocate and real intent to occupy. This is the one place in the plan where cutting a corner is not a business risk — it is loan fraud. If the move isn't real, don't do it.
By this point you have a year of landlord history and a rent roll, which strengthens the file rather than complicating it. Buy in the market you already know — the second acquisition should be easier than the first, not more exotic.
52030 → 2031 · Consolidate
Position: 5–7 doors, two of them acquired with no money down, an origination business with a track record, and a notary business that pays its own way.
- Fourplex: 3 rented units plus your former unit once you relocate = 4 doors
- Cash property, refinanced and rented = 1–2 doors
- VA property #3, occupied — second 2–4 unit
- Decide: sell #1 to restore entitlement for a third VA purchase, or refinance to a portfolio DSCR and keep it
The real Year 5 asset isn't the doors. It's that you'll have originated dozens of investor loans in a market you live in, with content that compounds. The properties are the visible part; the business is the part that scales.
What breaks this plan
- The tax returns don't get filed. Everything after Year 1 is gated on it. This is the single point of failure.
- You don't actually relocate. The plan requires leaving Venice. If that's not real, Years 2 and 4 need redesigning around investment property instead of VA — which means down payments.
- Origination income doesn't materialize. Notary income alone will not fund a cash purchase. If DSCR Insider isn't producing clients by mid-2027, the Year 3 cash buy slips.
- Buying condition instead of location. A cheap house on an unrentable block is a permanent loss, not a value-add.
- Chasing a new market before the first one pays. Two markets is already one more than most people can run well. Depth in St. Louis beats breadth across four states.
Rent in California, own in the Midwest
This is a deliberate position, and it has a name: rentvesting. You rent where the price-to-rent ratio is terrible and own where it cash flows. In Venice, renting is genuinely the better math — buying there would consume every dollar of capital for an asset that produces no income.
So California stays a housing expense, not a holding. Missouri and Tennessee do the earning. That is a coherent strategy, not a compromise.
But it collides with the VA plan, and you should see it plainly. A VA loan requires you to occupy the property, generally within 60 days. If you stay in Venice, the Midwest 2–4 units cannot be bought with VA at $0 down — they become investment purchases needing 20–25% down via DSCR or conventional. At $175K that is roughly $35,000–44,000 per property instead of nothing.
Two honest versions of this plan:
| Relocate to STL | Stay in Venice |
|---|
| Property #1 financing | VA, $0 down | DSCR, ~$40–50K down |
| Funding fee | $0 (waived) | n/a |
| Housing cost | Tenants cover it | Venice rent, out of pocket |
| Capital needed by 2027 | Reserves only | Reserves + down payment |
| Timeline to 5 doors | Faster | Slower — every door costs cash |
Neither is wrong. But the $0-down version is not available to someone who stays in California, and that is the single biggest financial consequence of where you sleep. Decide it on purpose.
Review cadence
Revisit this page every six months. Three questions only:
- Is the income engine bigger than it was six months ago?
- Is the next milestone still on its date, or has it slipped?
- What did I learn that makes part of this map wrong?
A five-year plan you never revise is a wish. One you revise twice a year is a strategy.
Jermaine Fields · NMLS #2067609 · CA Notary Public #2563256 · personal planning document, not financial or investment advice · entitlement figures based on the 2026 standard county one-unit limit of $832,750 — verify your Certificate of Eligibility and current limits at application · VA occupancy, entitlement, and second-tier rules confirmed with the lender before relying on them · pairs with the 2–4 Unit Acquisition Search and the Investor Minute production system