The “Lazy” Person’s Guide to Retiring with Rentals (in a Decade!)

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don’t buy in good school districts. Always end your leases in winter. NEVER raise rents on a tenant. These are just some of the “Dionisms” that have made Dion McNeeley, the so-called “lazy investor,” rich with rental properties. He achieved financial freedom, retiring early with a $200,000/year passive income after slowly, steadily, and lazily investing for the past decade. Want to never swing a hammer? You don’t have to! Want tenants to stick around as long as possible? They will! Too scared to have the rent raise talk? Let Dion do it for you! In this episode, we’re breaking down the ten different “Dionisms” (unconventional landlord advice) that have literally made Dion millions and can do the same for you. Dion went from debt-riddled to multi-millionaire in just over a decade, starting his journey making just $17/hour, with three kids and very little time. If Dion can reach financial freedom with FEWER rentals, why can’t you? In This Episode We Cover: Dion’s small (but mighty) financial freedom-enabling real estate portfolio Dion’s “binder strategy” that has tenants raise rents FOR you Why Dion never has his leases expire in the summer (even though EVERYONE says to do this) Buying in average school districts? Dion says DON’T buy near good schools (and he’s right) The surprising reason why the “worst states to invest in” will make you the richest And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1205 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Bigger Pockets community. It's Dave, just dropping in to give you a heads up that this week,
0:05.1	we are putting some of our most popular Bigger Pockets podcast episodes back on the feed over this
0:10.9	Thanksgiving week. Today, we have a conversation I had with Dion McNeely back in February.
0:17.5	Dion's been on the show before, and is also one of our amazing keynote speakers at
0:22.4	BPCon this past year. And I just love talking to him because he ignores a lot of the conventional
0:28.8	wisdom about real estate investing. He's a real thought leader. He thinks for himself. And
0:33.8	whether this episode is a refresher or you're hearing his Dionisms for the first time,
0:39.6	you're almost guaranteed to rethink some of your own investing ideas after listening to this
0:44.1	episode. Have a happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you back here with new episodes of the
0:48.5	Bigger Pockets podcast next week. Do not buy properties in a good school district. Have your leases end in the winter. Let your
0:57.0	tenants pick their own rent. You think you've been following real estate best practices?
1:02.2	Well, today we'll explain why everything you thought you knew might be wrong.
1:12.8	Hey, friends, it's Dave Meyer.
1:17.9	Welcome to the Bigger Pockets podcast, where we help you achieve financial freedom through real estate investing.
1:23.1	Today's guest is Dion McNeely, an investor in the Tacoma, Seattle area.
1:28.9	And you may have heard Dion before on The Rookie Show or Bigger Pockets Money podcast before,
1:34.5	and he's pretty famous for developing the quote-unquote binder strategy for raising rents.
1:38.2	Dion started investing with a huge amount of debt and a low income.
1:44.9	He used only the most basic strategies and says he tried to be as lazy about his investing as possible.
1:49.9	Today, fast forward, he's retired with more passive income than he can even spend.
1:53.8	So we're going to get into the details of how he had so much success,
1:57.8	even when he admittedly put as little work as possible into his portfolio.
	...

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