• Sean Kia is one of Insider’s Rising Stars of Real Estate for 2022.
• In two years, he’s made hundreds of millions by knocking over apartment buildings in the Southwest.
• He applies the Ford production model to real estate. Here’s how he built his empire.

This story originally appeared on Business Insider.

Los Angeles native Sean Kia, 31, has been a bit busy in recent years.

Between 2019 and now, Tides Equities – the investment firm he founded in 2016 and has led ever since – has built a small empire of apartment complexes in Sun Belt cities like Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston and Phoenix.

Just three years ago, Tides owned $2 billion in the apartments. Today, that number has grown to $7.5 billion, according to Kia.

In that time frame, Kia said Tides has made hundreds of millions of dollars for itself and its investors by refurbishing and reselling decades-old buildings. Tides deployed $7 billion in 2021 and 2022 alone, making it one of the nation’s most prolific buyers even as the overall multifamily housing market cooled due to rising interest rates.

With Kia at the helm, Tides counts more than 600 individuals as its investors in addition to family office and private equity capital, including large companies such as KKR. The company now has 31,000 units in its portfolio.

This was a vision Kia had when she was only 25.

An assembly line approach to real estate investing

After several years of buying and selling apartment buildings for other companies, Kia noticed there were ways to make the process more efficient by reducing renovation times.

After several years of buying and selling apartment buildings for other companies, Kia noticed there were ways to make the process more efficient by reducing renovation times.

The Tides on 7th apartment complex in Phoenix was a recent addition. Tidal Stocks via Business Insider

So he started Tides and applied the Ford model of large-scale production to his deals. The assembly line approach was useful for his primary occupation, which was to renovate the properties and sell them for a profit.

“Let’s create an assembly line approach to real estate investing and do the exact same thing for every building we buy,” he said, recalling the drive to start his business. “Because when you eliminate variables, you eliminate risk.”

Kia pulled in a few samples of Tides’ business. In July 2020, it bought a 236-unit apartment complex in Phoenix for $27 million, spent $3 million on upgrades, and sold it just over a year later for $59 million. In another deal, it paid $89.5 million for a 472-unit apartment building in October 2020, spent $4 million on renovations, and sold it in November 2021 for $137 million.

Because Tides uses virtually the same renovation plan for every acquisition, it can often start work before the ink on the sales contract is dry. This is possible because the company usually arranges its financing in advance.

The perfect spots

Another Kia secret is its attention to location. Cities should be fun, affordable, ripe for immigration and positioned for job and wage growth, he said.

He’s checked those boxes since he started out in Phoenix, where some of the company’s bread-and-butter investments were located. The typical renter paid only 20% of their income in rent, representing “very good affordability,” Kia said.

“It seemed like it had all the fundamental kinds of tailwinds that could really propel Phoenix into one of the most important investment markets,” he said. “Fast forward a few years later, we’re absolutely right. Phoenix is ​​in the top five markets in the country.”