What made my investor interested in this deal was firstly the size, being just under 1500 sqft and being a complete shell minus some framing allowed him to be able to convert this once 3 bed into a nice 4 bed home.

If I give you a dollar, how effectively are you at converting that dollar into maximum exposure? 

But the buyer would have to have a kitchen layout EXACTLY like yours...to the 1/8 inch.

Does anyone have experience in converting it to STR/AirBnb? 

You can vacate your primary house and convert it into a rental/investment property after 12 months.

What research have you done to convert it into an STR? 

The benefit is it can be sculpted to match the profile of difficult to find trim and can fix rotten patches of wood siding (up to a few inches in diameter) without pulling anything off the house.

Even though 2 of my San Diego STRs are in mission beach where quota was hit and many STRs had to convert to not STR (MTR, LTR, sell, etc), my ADR is down compared to past results.  

We develop and convert underperforming assets into self storage, as well as acquire existing B and C class facilities. 

He rightfully is thinking that a. you can't spend equity, it has to be converted to money to be useful b.