Experienced Bay Area Investors - asking for your advice

[Derek Martin]

To the experienced Bay Area investors out there, I'd like to ask some advice. My grandfather passed away and left many of our family members, including myself, with a lot of cash (I received about $1 mil). I'm looking to get started in real estate investing with this money in the SF Bay Area (where I live). My goal is to retire as early as possible with a very comfortable (~500k/year) passive income stream coming in.

If you were in my situation and just starting out as an investor...knowing what you know now, what would you do with the money? Where cities/areas would you buy from, what type of housing, what strategies would you employ, and why?