Friday, December 19, 2014

Dec 19

Damn!!! I keep seeing this over and over: People are not getting the results they want and they start questioning themselves - am I doing the right thing? Am I in the right business? Am I any good at this? Maybe this market is too hard, etc. They either scrape by making a meager living or quit. When the reality all along is this: You probably were doing the right thing all along (to get deals, to put them together, etc.). In all likelihood, the problem is you were NOT DOING ENOUGH OF IT! Think BIG and take massive and consistent action. Small action leads to small results and big action - consistently - leads to big results. By the way, this applies to all areas of life and all businesses. Change is a constant, but many people don't like change. People are uncomfortable with the changes in technology, demographics, the job market, and tastes that have taken place in recent years. But guess what? There will always be change. There are three response to change: 1. Reject it (futile, as it will happen anyway, unless you're the 1 in a billion people who can stop it; let's say a dictator or something; even then it will eventually happen). Be bitter and complain about it. Long for the "good old days". Don't adapt. 2. Accept it. Realize there's nothing you can do, so go with the flow. 3. Embrace it! Start businesses or get skills and adjust your life accordingly. New technology? Learn it, and maybe even start a business with it. Foreigners moving into the neighborhood? Learn about their culture and maybe learn how to do business with them. New music? Try to enjoy it, see why people are into it. New industries? Learn all about them.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Dec 12 2015

When I graduated from college with a master's degree in economics in my mid 20's, I had little direction or exact idea what I wanted to do. Looking back now, I was always an entrepreneur, selling cookies door to door at age 12, Cokes on the 4th of July at 13, and starting a telemarketing company at age 19, etc.
But at the time, I didn't know what I wanted to do, and real estate was the furthest thing from my mind.
I knew I needed a job (or so I believed; nobody actually needs a job. People need two things: purpose and money; most jobs provide both, but not very well), so I started sending out my resume. I was disappointed at the lack of response. It took me a few months to get a job.
My first real "job" out of college was for a small credit bureau that provided merged credit reports. Their main clients were mortgage brokers. It was owned by a husband and wife. My job was supposed to be marketing/sales. The husband owner kept telling me how these mortgage brokers made loads of money. Guy wasn't too bright, coz right away, I started thinking "maybe I should look into that". On the second day on the job, I was on the computer and supposed to be working, but I took a minute to check my personal email. The wife happened to see me and flew into a rage. She started screaming at me that she is not paying me to check my personal email. She was absolutely furious and yelling at the top of her lungs. It was crazy. This crazy, angry woman fired me on the spot. I had a few experiences like that, but less dramatic. LOL.
Shortly afterwards, inspired by my former boss, I entered the mortgage business, as a loan agent, and was very successful.
Have you ever had a bad experience lead to something good??? It often does.

Media Kit - ROUGH BrainSTORM

Jason Buzi

Real Estate Investor

@HiddenCash
(has co-founder, Yan Budman)

"Outed" by Inside Edition
Interviewed by Anderson Cooper of CNN
Interviewed by various newscasters

Before getting into real estate in 2005, Jason was a diamond seller, inventing products, and doing whatever he could to make a living.

He has done over 100 real estate deals ranging from wholesales, rehabbing and flipping, new construction and owning rental property.

In 2014, Jason personally made One Million dollars.

In May 2014, Jason founded the phenom known as "Hidden Cash." It was his effort to paying it forward.

Meet Jason and the man behind "Hidden Cash" as he talks about his comeback in real estate here in the most expensive real estate market in the nation.

2005 - Gets into the mortgage business
2008 - Bottom falls out of real estate
2009 - starts wholesaling
2010 - broke and living week to week in a hotel.... 2014 co-founded the phenom "@HiddenCash."
2013 - I discovered Jason online and started following him. Rehabbed and flipped 
2014 - earned $1 Million Dollars



Hidden Cash

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hidden Cash (@HiddenCash) is a movement founded by Jason Buzi and Yan Budman [1] using the Twitter account of the same name. [2] On May 22, 2014, Hidden Cash began hiding money in San Francisco, CA and tweeting out clues using the handle. Followers are encouraged to tweet a photo of themselves with the money they find, and Hidden Cash retweets these. Within a week, the group expanded to Los Angeles, and the account gained national and international media attention, and hundreds of thousands of followers. [3]
Over the course of about 10 weeks, Hidden Cash did money drops in California cities including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Burbank, Bakersfield, Riverside, and San Diego; Las Vegas, NV; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; New York City, and Mexico City. In Europe, Hidden Cash did events in London, Madrid, and Berlin.
Events typically consisted of the group hiding envelopes filled with money, most often between $50 to $100 in each, in various parks. In beaches in Southern California, from Los Angeles to San Diego, the group would hide money in Angry Birds toys or Pez dispensers. Pez dispensers were also used for the group's final drops at Coney Island and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York. [4]
The number of participants in every scavenger hunt type event typically ranged from 200 to over 3000. A July event at a city park in Whittier, CA resulted in $5000 worth of property damage, which the group reimbursed the city for. [5] The group also sponsored free ice cream on July 4 at Ben and Jerry's in San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, DC. On Monday, August 4, the group bought $1000 worth of groceries for shoppers in the Bronx, NY. [6] Hidden Cash encourages its followers to "pay it forward".
Dozens of copycat accounts have sprung up around the world, most using "Hidden Cash" as part of their name, and many doing similar events in their local area.
On August 12, 2014, Hidden Cash creators Jason Buzi and Yan Budman announced that they were discontinuing the current phase of cash drops effective immediately. [7] Buzi stressed that although the current iteration of Hidden Cash had ended, he remains hopeful that the next phase of "fun and giving" will soon be underway. [8] At the time of the announcement, the original Twitter account @hiddencash had 720,000 followers.

References

  1. Jason Buzi & Yan Budman Hidden Cash Creators "http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/31/hiddencash-yan-budman/"
  2. Founding date May 22, 2014 "http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/08/12/4066820_the-guys-behind-hidden-cash-say.html?sp=/99/406/&rh=1"
  3. Hidden Cash expands to LA, Angry Birds toys hidden at Hermosa Beach "http://ktla.com/2014/05/31/hiddencash-fans-guess-cash-filled-angry-birds-may-be-hidden-at-santa-monica-beach/"
  4. Pez Dispensers at NYC Hidden Cash Drops "http://pix11.com/2014/08/03/hidden-cash-comes-back-to-new-york-fills-pez-dispensers-with-money/"
  5. Jason Buzi reimburses Whittier after damage "http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hidden-cash-park-damage-20140716-story.html"
  6. Hidden Cash buys groceries at Bronx (NY) Foodtown "http://www.today.com/money/hidden-cash-creators-pay-1000-worth-groceries-bronx-1D80023461"
  7. Hidden Cash ceases operation "http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/08/12/4066820_the-guys-behind-hidden-cash-say.html?sp=/99/406/&rh=1"
  8. Buzi alludes to future giveaways "http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s3mafc"

Dec 12 2014

As important as finding deals is maximizing how much you make on each deal. I've had several deals I made $15K on that I could/should have made over $100K. It takes about seven $15K deals to equal $100K. People talk about how many deals they do, like it matters. "I flipped 50 houses last year". You can make $1 million on 4 flips (I have) or $200K on 20 flips (I have). Which would you rather do?


  • Jae Rapelyea Less deals for more money
  • Kevin Hudoba I closed 35 deals this year (as an agent).
  • Jamal Houpe Less deals more money.
  • Kathy Kennebrook any deal that makes me a decent amount of money, I am not turning down a deal because it's "only" going to make me 15K
    1 hr · Like · 1
  • Kathy Kennebrook I do prefer the bigger paychecks though that's why we do a lot of direct mail to owners of luxury houses, last one we did netted 84K, I really like that number
    1 hr · Like · 2
  • Danny O'Bannon I just did a deal for 5k. Got it under contract on a tuesday, found a buyer and it closed that friday. Crazy fast. Nice little check to pay for the next round of materials on my flip project
    1 hr · Like · 1
  • Jason Buzi Yes. My point is NOT to turn down a $15K deal or even a $5K deal. Who in their right mind would turn down money? My point is if there's a way you can make 5 to 10 times more on that deal buying it than you would wholesaling, take a long hard look at that. I've wholesaled numerous deals for $10K or $15K when I could have made 6 figures buying and reselling them.
    1 hr · Like · 2
  • Danny O'Bannon I agree with you. I think the point is, and youve stated this pletny of times, to grow from being just a wholsaler to a well rounded investor. I'm in my second year and I am doing more rehabs now because I have a hard time collecting 5k and then watching my buyer go off and make 30k
  • Jae Rapelyea This is an age old debate. Some view doing More deals with smaller profit the way to go. Vs doing less deals with the same amount or more profit. The question was asked would you want to do 1 deal a month at 25k or five deals at 5k a piece .most wanted to do 5 deals @ 5k a piece. But you gave an analogy once of Ppl who saw a tree and just picked the apples that fell to the ground . They never looked up to try and pick the ripe more delicious apples from the tree. Those apples on the tree were in turn your bigger more profitable deals.
  • Wednesday, December 10, 2014

    @hc good bye

    IMPORTANT announcement. This is difficult...



    They say all good things come to an end, and for us, we realize that time is now for this phase of @hiddencash.

    What started as a fun project to bring a smile to people's faces, bring people together, and perhaps inspire them to pay it forward, took off beyond what we ever expected.
    Seeing how much fun people were having made us keep going - taking it to cities all over the United States, and even Mexico and Europe.
    Our events brought together hundreds of people at a time. Best of all, we got to hear so many inspiring stories about how Hidden Cash was making a positive difference in people's lives.

    We saw a 14 year old girl in tears because the money she found would help her sick grandmother buy medicine. A man wrote that he gets depressed watching the TV news every night with his wife and son, but since we started, they have a reason to be happy while watching the news, seeing how people are coming together in a fun way. A young lady who found our money just handed it over to a little girl who was looking. A young boy gave his to the homeless. People said they were inspired to buy groceries and gas for those in need. A woman wrote that her daughter read about us, and decided to give her savings to the needy. A young man in London said you never talk to strangers in London, but he made new friends as they tried to figure out the clues together.

    These stories and the hundreds like them, touched our hearts and made us feel a sense of responsibility to our followers.

    Your stories have kept us going.

    We ended up spending more time, energy, and money on HC than we ever expected to. It became more than a full time job. But it's also been extremely gratifying.

    We realized at one point, that the only way to continue HC was with sponsors, and we were approached by several big names.
    After much consideration, we decided that turning HC into an advertising business was not in line with our goals and mission.

    So, we have made the difficult decision to end the HC money drops.
    What started May 22 on the streets of San Francisco, ended on August 3 on the beach in New York City.

    This does not mean we are abandoning our mission of bringing people together in a fun and positive way, or of giving back. If anything, we are more determined than ever to keep doing that, reinforced by the love from our fans and witnessing first hand what a positive impact can be made. It does mean that this phase, of money drops in public places, as we have been doing it is over. It is simply not sustainable for two regular guys to keep doing this forever.

    We feel a real sadness at ending this phase. We will miss many aspects of this - the fun of planning the events - but mainly, seeing so many smiling and happy faces, of all ages and backgrounds coming together. We will miss that. But although part of us really wanted to continue, to return to cities that showed us love, and come to more places around the world, we realized that HC could not be sustained forever, without turning it into a sponsored business, and we did not want to do that.

    Since HC started, hundreds of independent, local versions have sprung up. From Mexico City to Vancouver to San Diego to the UK, others have been inspired to do something similar. If they can do it in the spirit in which it was intended, and safely, we support what they are doing. Nevertheless, we want to be clear we are not affiliated with any of these. We commend those who have good intentions and good planning. If done safely and for the right reasons, this is one way in which the HC movement can live on and grow around the world.

    Although we are saying goodbye for now, and ending this phase of Hidden Cash, please stay tuned to this page, as we hope to do more fun and giving things in the future. We are also interested in hearing from you. Whether it's for ideas of what to do next, sharing your stories with us, or wanting us to speak about our experiences and the lessons from Hidden Cash to your organization. Contact us by email at officialhiddencash@gmail.com

    Most of all, we hope we have inspired others, to believe there is goodness in the world, to give back when they can (which doesn't have to be financially), and to believe in their own power to make a difference.

    If two regular guys from San Francisco were able to bring joy and excitement to thousands worldwide, it is our sincere belief that anyone can do the same, and that people tend to underestimate their own strength and ability - to change their own lives, and to change the world.

    We also want to thank you. In reality, it is you who inspired us. It is you who gave the intangible gifts of the stories and smiles, and shared them with the world.

    Thank you to all of our followers.

    Love,
    Jason Buzi and Yan Budman
    Founders, Hidden Cash

    Wednesday, December 3, 2014

    dec 3

    I don't know where I would be without you, but I know it wouldn't be a good place. I really can't imagine my life without you. You've made me fulfill my potential and be the person I was meant to be. Everything I have is, literally, thanks to you. I love you, real estate!

    Tuesday, December 2, 2014

    dec 2

    Here's something to think about, that the successful know: It IS harder to make $100K than $10K on a deal, but it is NOT 10 times harder. It's maybe 2 to 3 times harder. It's also harder to make $500K on a deal than $100K, but it's not 5 times harder... I've done all these, so I know. Something to think about.