How to Start Real Estate Investing While Working a Full-Time Job | Andy Bodrog

Andy Bodrog (00:00)
for me, real estate investing was always from the mindset of here’s my job, how do I maximize the savings? Right. And I I found it’s it’s a lucky circumstance to be around New York. So anyone who’s in the New York or large metro areas, I always found that if you’re just 30 minutes, 45 minutes outside of the core.

And core here is Manhattan, where the ha rents are really high, large populations, you’re gonna always have rental demand. So look for populations, city centers where you can purchase something more on the outskirts, but still close enough, and you can rent it well.

Meghan Escobar (02:10)
Hello everyone. Welcome back to *Real Estate Pros Podcast*. I am your host, Meghan Escobar, and today I have the pleasure of sitting down with a fine young gentleman that goes by the name of Andy Bodrog, who is the founder and CEO of stoop.live

He’s recently, you know, started building his investment portfolio. And I am excited to bring him in because I know a lot of people in our audience are also just getting started in the game. And I think that he’s gonna be able to provide some great insights for you.

And the way that he’s positioned himself and building his business. So, Andy, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us today.

Andy Bodrog (00:38)
Thanks, Meghan. Thanks for the intro.

Meghan Escobar (00:40)
Absolutely.

And first and foremost, for those people who might not be familiar with who you are or what you’re representing, can you give us a thirty thousand foot view of what your focus is these days with stoop.live and what markets you’re operating in?

Andy Bodrog (00:57)
Yes. So hi everyone. Nice to be here. Essentially Stoop LLC is my real estate investment firm. I’ve been investing in real estate next to my job, daytime job for about 10 plus years now. I’m from New York originally, originally Hungary, so from Europe. Moved to the US with my family around 2004. And I began real estate investing when I was around 27 in the in the city.

Moved out to New Jersey, Hoboken area, and through the years, essentially accumulated a dozen properties. And the last five years, I’ve moved down to South Florida. I still split my time between New York and and Fort Lauderdale, but mostly I’m here. And yeah, I work in tech during the day, insurance technology. So I handle partnerships, embedded partnerships, and usually these insurance products we integrate into companies are home related.

So think of homeowners, insurance, home warranty. So it ties well into my interest of investing in cash flowing real estate.

Meghan Escobar (02:05)
Beautiful. And one thing that caught my attention was the that you started out in your mid-20s because you didn’t want to rent. And so you purchased your first condo. And and that, you know, put some fire into you to start to build your investment portfolio in New York. Can you tell us a little bit about that journey?

Andy Bodrog (02:26)
Yeah, I think a lot of people can understand the the lifestyle challenge of living in the in the city in Manhattan when in your twenties. So I was lucky enough I had a company I worked for called Reuters, Thomson Reuters, large company. So I was my first job was in corp in corporate financial services and they helped with rent. So I had a relocation from London. But after I left that company, I was in a

Chelsea studio and this is back in 2013. And we’re talking about $2,000 for rent for that very small studio. We’re talking 350, 400 square feet, first floor, so very loud. You know, bars on the window, great area, but at that time, you know, being in our mid-20s, that was a lot of money for me. I could of course afford the rent with working, but I felt like there’s like this is crazy that you know.

Half of your salary or much of your salary is going to rent. And my journey to ownership wasn’t simple. I essentially traded that studio to live with roommates for a year. And that’s when I started, you know, researching, learning, and most importantly, saving. And my first few ideas was: well, where can I buy around New York something under 200,000? You know, at that age, even that amount of money is a lot. So the down payment, you know.

20% ish, 40k is what you have to come up with. And that’s a lot of money to save when when you have worked, I don’t know, two, three years. So for one year, I had multiple roommates, you know, try to live really, really low cost. I lived in essentially west side Harlem, right above Columbia. And I was able to save. And my initial thoughts were Bronx or more upper Manhattan, where you could find.

200k ish homes, I mean condos, co-ops even. And I started looking and and and it just so happened that I got in touch with an agent who was in Jersey. And as people who live in New York know, people that live in the city rarely go to Jersey, even though it’s you know a stone throw away. It’s like the tunnel people.

Meghan Escobar (04:42)
The bridge.

Andy Bodrog (04:43)
Exactly. And so I

26 27 age, I found this really nice one bedroom, pretty large. So from 300 ish square foot studio to almost 700 square feet. Great views condo. It was 145k at the time. And yeah, I basically purchased that and I still have that. So it’s one of my I did a lot of Airbnb with it, furnished rental with it. Sometimes in my early 20s 20s, I rented out rooms.

So that property allowed me, and I was super proud of it. I remember at the time I worked for this financial services company and I had colleagues come over for a housewarming when there was nothing in the apartment. So just a bed. So you know it’s not furnished or anything, and everyone was just standing around and drinking.

Meghan Escobar (05:35)
Yeah. Wow. That’s a that’s a great story. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I know that right now through your journey and that was your starting point. Right now you’ve positioned yourself down here in Florida and now have an eight unit property under your belt. Can you talk to us? And I know that a lot of times we like to highlight the just

The success portion of the stories, right? But you also just told us a little tidbit about what it took you, the sacrifices that you had to make to get to that first condo. Can you tell us about any sacrifices that you maybe had to

Crossover on that move from New York down to Florida and and getting yourself this eight unit property and what that took.

Andy Bodrog (06:28)
Yeah, I think you know, if you listen to a lot of these investor podcasts, online YouTube videos of advice, everyone’s talking about house hacking, right? That’s one of the key ways to, you know, live in one unit, buy a multifamily, you know, get tax tax advantages or selling it, you know, live in two years, sell it within five years so you don’t pay the capital gains tax.

For me, I it was more of a progression and I’m very lucky that I was always for me, real estate investing was always from the mindset of here’s my job, how do I maximize the savings? Right. And I I found it’s it’s a lucky circumstance to be around New York. So anyone who’s in the New York or large metro areas, I always found that if you’re just 30 minutes, 45 minutes outside of the core.

And core here is Manhattan, where the ha rents are really high, large populations, you’re gonna always have rental demand. So look for populations, city centers where you can purchase something more on the outskirts, but still close enough, and you can rent it well. My position with my properties was always you know, not the lowest in the market rent, but definitely not competitive.

So this way it’s furnished nicely, or the location is good. I can Airbnb it and I have more demand. I purchased a two-family in downtown Jersey City, so south part of Jersey City, and those who are in New York area know this. Jersey City has boomed in the last, I don’t know, 10 years. Yeah. And two families, especially. So a lot of families, Jewish families and other families from Brooklyn, very high.

Cost areas have moved over because literally it’s two, three miles away. And for a family around New York, you want a garden, you want a garage, really, that’s your only option. There’s no single family homes or gardens. It’s usually these duplexes, two families. I’ve held it for five years from 2019 to 2024, and it essentially doubled. And I had friends invest in that area as well. So that was really good. And then the transition to Florida, it’s all COVID, right?

So COVID happened. And I looked at, you know, okay, remote work has started, which is a a great a boon and also lonely sometimes and tax advantage.

Meghan Escobar (08:57)
I can relate, yeah.

Andy Bodrog (08:59)
Yeah, if you’re working remote, so now you don’t have to go every day into the city into an office. Well, then what are you really doing around this high cost area like New York? So Florida was always kind of part of my family for vacations, just like for a lot of people. And I don’t know exactly how, but just got an opportunity and purchased a nice beach condo close to the beach, two bedroom in 2021 when the rates were super low.

So that began kind of the transition to Florida and learning about the markets here. And then coming up to the end, the eight unit development that I have under Stoop is a longer story, but you know, that was a very it’s seller financing. A friend introduced me to the neighbor, and it’s literally in the downtown core of Fort Lauderdale, Sailboat Bend area. Right now I have two buildings on it that I’m planning to, you know, demolish soon and build an eight unit instead of the current three unit.

Meghan Escobar (09:59)
Amazing. And so I I know Stoop is kind of up and coming as we said and you already have that eight unit under it. So talk to us about what you are focused on, you know, scaling up to next. What’s the next real big goal for Andy and Stoop?

Andy Bodrog (10:18)
Yeah, I think it’s a natural progression for you know small small landlords, small, you know, independent investors is okay, you started buying a few properties, you started getting cash flow from condos here, maybe a multifamily. It’s how do you grow? What how do you become how do you have properties or investments that are really worth the effort? It’s not that one or two condo isn’t.

It’s just managing in individual small units in multiple states. Obviously, with the property management tenant issues, it comes with you know more headache. Let’s just say that. You know, I’ve gone through my evictions, learning experiences, like a lot of people. So, my goal with Stoop is to essentially focus on something that is a niche area in multifamilies, boutique multifamily.

Kind of the flexible rental world. I’ve noticed, you know, there’s a lot of boom in this market here, as we discussed. Tampa, South Florida area, Orlando, and in general in the Sunbelt. And what you see is institutional capital, CBRE, JLL, Kushner, a lot of these Naftali Group from New York are moving down here and they’re all building the same kind of product. A large 100, 200 unit pro multifamily building.

Great amenities but my kind of focus with Stoop is boutique multifamily you know eight fifteen units and how do I scale this so this will be the first project we call it Stoop Oasis it’s basically you know lush tropical landscaping a very cool wellness oriented pool kind of grotto sauna you know all the sun deck how do you create kind of a hotel like

Rental experience. That’s the goal.

Meghan Escobar (12:14)
Beautiful. And and more so focused on short term rental, not long term, with this style.

Andy Bodrog (12:19)
Yeah, the idea with my architect is from the eight units, we can this is still under discussion is how do you maximize your operating income, right? Because now it’s commercial property, the whole cap rate part of seasoning, and once it’s built, how do I maximize the value? Maybe half would be midterm, short-term rentals furnished, mostly two bedrooms and one bedrooms, and then I have a free bedroom kind of

Penthouse that is more of like a owner’s suite or like a very nice short term rental property. But yeah, that’s the idea.

Meghan Escobar (12:54)
That’s huge. And it sounds like this can really help compound things for you to the next level and and help you start to really build and expand on that portfolio on the investment portfolio and start looking at other properties and really building the brand here. That’s awesome. And you know, one thing we did touch on in our little discovery here before we hopped on this live was networking and how impactful, you know, that is to building your success. And

I know a lot of our listeners, they are either very green or early on in their real estate journey or entrepreneurship journey. And yeah, I I think they could benefit from hearing this. Like for you, Andy, when it comes to building relationships and and growing your brand and your network, what has made the biggest difference for you?

Andy Bodrog (13:42)
I think there’s three things that I’ve done throughout my time as an investor in real estate is first you know just local networking events. I was always open to those, be it real estate related or my job, like tech related. I really enjoy those, Luma.com in the U in New York or Miami, bunch of really good events, especially nowadays around AI, which to be honest, you don’t necessarily need to go to an event that’s just real estate investment folks.

So you can go to a tech event and meet, you know, mortgage companies, meet leasing technology companies. There’s a bunch of prop tech firms that are operating on the edge of real estate, might not own, but operate or manage properties that you can learn from. I like due to my job, I go to a lot of conferences, usually every quarter. These conferences usually like OpTech or Blueprint, very real estate, property technology heavy. So great learning there.

And then as an agent, right, you meet other agents. But if you are not an agent, you can still become friends with agents, have an agent, you know, watch their YouTube videos. Here in Fort Lauderdale, I found the guy who makes amazing introductory videos of different neighborhoods, what’s coming. So I met with him, showed him my property, kind of discussed with him my idea for Stoop. And you know, once it’s built, he could really be like an asset. He could be like the marketing the head or the leasing

Coordinator.

Meghan Escobar (15:12)
Love that. So safe to say that this is a relationship business and you you something you can’t fake. You gotta get into the rooms, you gotta shake hands and you you have to create these relationships in order to get to the next level.

Andy Bodrog (15:25)
Yes, and something I’d add, I used to listen to podcasts like this, you know, forums, BiggerPockets, etc. in the early days. That’s very valuable hearing different stories, and you always find nuggets of information you can learn. Let’s say you have your first property under the belt or multiple. There’s so much learning you can also share and discuss about tenant issues, maintenance issues, where’s a great area to invest? Like I feel like it’s a

Such a great world in the US once it comes to real estate investing that you can get a lot of information from other investors and you can also share from your market because every market is different. You know, South Florida here it’s completely different world from New Jersey or New York. The tenant laws, the building codes, like everything is different.

Meghan Escobar (16:15)
Everything. Yeah. And it’s important to understand all of those, you know, ins and outs because it’s better to know ahead of time versus getting in and then having to deal with all the issues, you know, crossing the bridges. So all right. And before we wrap, Andy, if someone listening in and they want to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe help you expand or collaborate, what would be the best way for them to reach you? Is that social media account? Is there a phone number or email?

Andy Bodrog (16:45)
Yeah, I I like to do social media. So Stoop is under stoop.live That’s the website as well. And yeah, essentially Stoop Living is the brand and want to grow that. And this is our first project, so super excited, probably breaking ground and finishing next year. So yeah, that’s where you can reach.

Meghan Escobar (17:10)
Awesome, awesome. So we’ll be sure to drop those links as well below so you can just click on it and and get right connected with Andy without having to Google or take the extra step. So thank you so much, Andy, for being here. I really appreciate your time. I really appreciate you sharing your perspective and and your journey along the way. I think this could definitely help someone listening in that might just be getting started to, you know, you gotta go through the hurdles in order to get to the

To the top of the mountain. So thank you again for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Andy Bodrog (17:42)
Meghan. Goodbye.

Meghan Escobar (17:43)
Absolutely. And for those of you that are tuning in, if you got any value from this, please be sure to hit like and subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming in with operators just like Andy. And you know, look, he’s shared his journey. He’s building real businesses in real time with real people. So we’ll see you on the next episode.