All Forum Posts by: Collin Chan
Collin Chan has started 2 posts and replied 162 times.
Post: Bay Area (CA) Meet Ups?

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
Quote from @Mark Wagner:
Can anyone point me in the direct of real estate investor meet ups in the Bay Area (CA)?
There's a monthly one on Meet up "Bay Area Real Estate Investors".
Look up Tyler Jahnke, here on BP. He hosts these at Two Pitchers Brewery in Oakland. There is also another one in the Tri-Valley area but I haven't been to that one due to work schedule.
Collin
Post: To ADU or not to ADU

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
I would also consider taxes into your situation. Are you able to take advantage of the ADU as an expense against other income (W2 other gains) where you could get back most of it? Other options might require you to pay additional gains on your income if not tax advantaged through real estate so having a tax strategy could also come into play in this decision vs straight cash on cash.
Post: Curious if my home would be a good STR - wine country

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
Definitely worth to try both in a hybrid if you can. I don't know the Oregon scene too well however a house we purchased in Napa was a monthly vacation rental before and it was booked 8 months of the year. It was smaller as well (2/1) so maybe attracted retired couples but with things changing, I'm not sure if remote workers might be interested in staying your location? Most of our STRs have an office set up of some sort or a spot to work with monitors and we do find this attracts a lot of guests where someone needs to work while the family enjoys the activities.
Traveling nurses get a lot of the buzz around MTRs but displaced families from fires (Napa and Oregon do see a lot of these), other work force that can be remote or travel, or other potential guests.
Also, definitely use Airdna or one of the other sites that estimate your revenue to see how it would perform in your market and then look at other listings as well to see what amenities they offer to see if you could be competitive in your market.
Post: Theater room or 6th bedroom in a 5/3.5 house?

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
Quote from @Collin Chan:
Can you combine? I know theater looking seating shows well in listing pictures (and we have it ourselves) but maybe you could have a couple pull out sofa beds that could be used for theater seating or extra beds?
I have thought of this as well. Room could probably support one pull out bed with bean bags on the floor. If I did theater chairs I could probably do 4 wide with bean bags out front
Post: Theater room or 6th bedroom in a 5/3.5 house?

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
Can you combine? I know theater looking seating shows well in listing pictures (and we have it ourselves) but maybe you could have a couple pull out sofa beds that could be used for theater seating or extra beds?
Post: 5 bedroom property Airbnb

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
It depends on your market and how well a 5 bedroom house does vs 2 separate units with a 3/1 and 2/1 mix. You would have to look at comps. Keep in mind that if the top and bottom are rented out separately, guests below may complain about noise from guests upstairs even just walking around since most single family homes aren't built with noise separation in mind.
If a 5 bedroom can get a lot more income than the 2 units or you like to have one unit for better efficiency, some opt to have another listing with just a portion available within a month to fill remaining days that aren't booked since it's easier to get smaller groups last minute than larger ones. You can have multiple listings for the same properties with rules to set up when they are bookable.
Post: STR Northern CA Markets

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
@Jimmy Woodard. Not sure if you're still active on BP.
Jimmy had a pretty good list of each CA city/county and their restrictions or policies so you can see what might be a good fit for you. Check out their profile and company information to see if they have information that could be helpful for you.
Post: What is my best strategy to start STR with $1M cash?

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
Quote from @James Pearce:
Quote from @Collin Chan:
Quote from @Ricardo Hidalgo:
Quote from @James Pearce:
Hello, new to STR and selling my business. I want to invest $1M into real estate. In my mind, I want to buy a near-beach/ beach front condo/house with cash and use it as my cash flow. Since I won't rely on this cash flow I want to snowball it annually into purchasing more properties.
My question is, is that the best strategy or should I use the $1M as a down payment and finance more properties from the start?
Curious what the best pathway is. I've leaned towards cash first and sort of wait out the high interest rates, and then possible refi this first property in a few years.
Thanks!
I would look into value add or renovation. We invested a similar amount of cash during this time into several construction, Reno and land acquisitions projects. Some of them were for cashflow and other for equities positions. Currently we are sitting above a 30% return since buying in march of 2023. If you don't want to do any work, I would look for turn key options with strong rental history or gulf front options that are underperforming.
+1. We've done value add BRRR STRs as Rob likes to call it and put money into remodeling houses from 3/2 to 5/3 houses. We bought for $950k and after $200k in remodeling had it appraised at $1.4M and did a cash out refi to pull out the construction cost. We increased the value by 200k and are doing a cost segregation study on the improvements to accelerate the depreciation to offset other incomes. So we got the forced appreciation, the accelerated depreciation, and now STR income.
Given that you sold a business you might want to talk to your CPA about this strategy to minimize the taxes from selling your business.
I love everything about this. Now that it's a 5/3, what % were you able to refi out? And at that amount you have no problem with cash flow on the STR side?
We kept 40% in the property. It was part of a 1031 exchange split across 3 properties and we put more of the funds into this property since we planned to remodel and pull some of it back out after the value add project.
Our 5 bedroom on Airdna is pretty wide from 180k-240k annual gross income. We're on track for 140k but just launched this one in March so it's a slower run up but fall and holidays are booked already.
Feel free to connect and I can fill you in on more details.
Post: What is my best strategy to start STR with $1M cash?

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
Quote from @Ricardo Hidalgo:
Quote from @James Pearce:
Hello, new to STR and selling my business. I want to invest $1M into real estate. In my mind, I want to buy a near-beach/ beach front condo/house with cash and use it as my cash flow. Since I won't rely on this cash flow I want to snowball it annually into purchasing more properties.
My question is, is that the best strategy or should I use the $1M as a down payment and finance more properties from the start?
Curious what the best pathway is. I've leaned towards cash first and sort of wait out the high interest rates, and then possible refi this first property in a few years.
Thanks!
I would look into value add or renovation. We invested a similar amount of cash during this time into several construction, Reno and land acquisitions projects. Some of them were for cashflow and other for equities positions. Currently we are sitting above a 30% return since buying in march of 2023. If you don't want to do any work, I would look for turn key options with strong rental history or gulf front options that are underperforming.
+1. We've done value add BRRR STRs as Rob likes to call it and put money into remodeling houses from 3/2 to 5/3 houses. We bought for $950k and after $200k in remodeling had it appraised at $1.4M and did a cash out refi to pull out the construction cost. We increased the value by 200k and are doing a cost segregation study on the improvements to accelerate the depreciation to offset other incomes. So we got the forced appreciation, the accelerated depreciation, and now STR income.
Given that you sold a business you might want to talk to your CPA about this strategy to minimize the taxes from selling your business.
Post: Home Insurance for Short term rentals

- Investor
- Dublin, CA
- Posts 166
- Votes 132
I have STR insurance through Travelers. They have a product that covers STR related issues.
Looking at Safely for direct bookings which also covers background checks and including it in the fees.