Tiny Homes, Micro Units, Community & More – 2/28/18 WNAC

Tiny Homes, Micro Units & Community

Couldn’t Be There? Watch below:

The acronym ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) is bandied about with more frequency of late. This is because of recently signed legislation that makes it easier for homeowners to add additional living units to their property.

WNAC’s 2/28 meeting featured a panel of ADU experts who addressed questions, such as:

• What is an ADU and where can they be installed?
• Is it possible for them to be self-contained or do I need sewer, water & electricity connections?
• I am tapped out and can’t afford new financing? What are my options?
• What about the business case for putting one my property?
• What sort of tenants are interested in living in an ADU?
• Is this a retirement option?

Meeting Notes:

The first part of the 2/28/18 WNAC meeting discussed the idea of putting a cap on I-280 and the initiative that VTA is looking at that would add a Northbound off-ramp to Winchester (via Tisch). By way of example, images of a road cap in Scottsdale were presented. Finally, Javier Quezada of Sail Internet presented their broadband offering, which provides an alternative to the incumbent providers. They are looking for a location for a tower to offer service in the WNAC-area.

Then, State Senator Wieckowski sets the stage for the WNAC’s 2/28/18 meeting on Accessory Dwelling Units. As he points out, ADUs not only help boost housing stock, they provide a way for young people to return home and seniors remain in their homes.

David Roberson, of Silicon Valley Property Management, moderates a panel at the 2/28/18 Winchester NAC meeting. Panelists include Tony Chan of ADU-Builders, Eoin Matthews of Point and Michael Brilliot of the City of San Jose. This interactive session resulted in many questions from the audience regarding the challenges and opportunities of adding an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), often known as Tiny Homes or Granny Units, to a homeowner’s property.

Speakers 

• Michael Brilliot, Division Manager, City of San Jose
• Tony Chan – Founder & CEO of ADU Builder, Inc.
• Eoin Matthews – Chief Business Officer – Point
• David Roberson – Principal at Silicon Valley Property Management Group & Author of Your Guide to Real Estate Investing

Potential New Broadband Option for the WNAC Area

Building on the work of a number of WNAC members to create a fiber cooperative network, Sail Internet was contacted about the feasibility of bringing broadband to the WNAC area. Sail has brought Internet to multiple MDUs (Multi-Dwelling Units) in Fremont and San Jose and has expressed an interest in serving our area, provided they get key antenna sites and a critical mass of potential customers.

Speaker

Javier Quezada, Business Development, Sail Internet

Regular Business

In addition to the above topics, we will have time for our regular agenda items, including:

• Introductions/Agenda overview – Ken (2-3 min)​
• Treasurer’s Report, Barbara (1-2 min)​
• Pueblo Play BeautifySJ Update (3 min)​
• 280 Cap/VTA update – Ken, Gary, Carlin, Marius (10 min)​
• Sail Internet – (10 minutes)
• ADU Opportunities & Challenges

Date: Wed, February 28th, 2018
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Cypress Senior Center, 403 Cypress Ave

References

• IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS COULD SOLVE CALIFORNIA’S HOUSING CRISIS? by David Roberson
• https://www.losaltosonline.com/special-sections2/sections/your-home/57062-
• https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/19/housing-city-hopes-more-residents-will-jump-on-the-granny-flat-bandwagon/
• https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/02/13/san-jose-identifies-three-tiny-homes-sites-for-the-homeless/
• https://www.curbed.com/2017/7/20/15958910/tiny-house-financing-loans-rv-personal
• ADU Builder Summary Video – Providing Housing for the Missing Middle (see below)

Speaker Biographies

Michael Brilliot, Division Manager, City of San Jose

Michael Brilliot is a Planning Division Manager with the City of San Jose and currently leads the Citywide planning team, which includes long range planning, Urban Village planning and the zoning ordinance. This team is currently focused on retrofitting suburbia into walkable, urban great places.

Tony Chan, ADU Builder

Tony Y. Chan is the Co-Founder and CEO of ADU Builder, Inc, a startup that builds, finances, and manages ADUs in exchange for a portion of the rent. He is working hard to address the housing shortage in the Bay Area. Tony has been your trusted realtor for 5 years. In 2014, he brought in revenue of 20 million in sales. Previously, he was the Asset Manager for Palo Alto Real Estate Investment Fund I, LLC. This fund specialized in commercial real estate with over 80% IRR since 2012.

Tony started his career being a part of the Windows 95 development group at Microsoft. He then moved forward by becoming the founder of Facio software, the redberry company in China. Tony helped the company grow from 0 to US$2MM in sales within 3 years. Facio Software was then interviewed by Businessweek. Tony was also responsible for Vital Suites at Vitalsigns Software, Inc. The software received a Network World award and was later acquired by Lucent Technology. In 2003, Tony was responsible for storage management at Rhapsody networks in which later the company became Brocade Communications.

In addition to his executive career, Tony is the creator of a popular Android app, One Chinese a Day. This app was the #1 paid educational app available through Amazon Appstore. He also invested in 21 High Tech Angel investments which in return yielded 25% per year. Tony Chan obtained his Bachelors of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley. He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Eoin Matthews

Eoin Matthews is Point’s co-founder and Chief Business Officer. Point creates innovative financial solutions that help homeowners get the best use from their homes and their home equity wealth. In particular, the company has significant expertise in helping homeowners finance and build cost-effective ADUs, home remodeling, and backyard units. The company counts industry leaders like Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital, and Bloomberg Beta among its investors. Prior to Point, Eoin was on the founding teams of Sendgrid and Metails (acquired by Buy.com). Eoin holds a B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from National University of Ireland, Galway.

Javier Quezada

David Roberson

David Roberson is a licensed real estate attorney, a licensed real estate broker, and has been involved in the real estate business since he graduated from San Jose State
University in 1986. David has personally been involved in hundreds of real estate
transactions, has personally inspected over 2,500 residential properties, and is an expert in 12 separate building code categories. He and his wife Shelly have managed a
personal portfolio of real properties in California and Arizona since 1998.

David is an author of two books: “How to Legally Rent Out Your House” and “Your
Guide to Real Estate Investing.” Both books are available on Amazon.com or if you
email David he will send you an eBook or a hard copy gratis.

David is also an author of over 100 blog articles on real estate, real estate transactions, real property management, and real property development. Most of David’s articles can be found on his blog at http://www.svmpg.net.

David is currently the principal broker/owner of Silicon Valley Property Management
Group – managing over 150+ residential, commercial and retail properties for clients in
Silicon Valley.