Category:

Jason Wade

Posted: 04/02/2019

Congratulations to Joe Tarpley for 55 Years of Auctions!

Apr 2, 2019

Mr. Joe Tarpley just celebrated 55 years of selling real estate at auction. He helped to establish the Georgia Auctioneers Association in 1977 and has been a continued supporter of our group. Joe was inducted into the GAA Hall of Fame in 1988 and awarded by the National Auctioneers Hall of Fame in 1988. Please join us in this walk down memory lane from Joe’s early beginnings at J.L Todd Auction Company to his current position as Associate Broker, Auctioneer & Business Development with John Dixon & Associates, located in Marietta, GA.


55 Years of Auctions – JOE TARPLEY PHOTO GALLERY: 

Joe 1966 at J.: Todd Auction Co.
1999 NAA Hall of Fame Award
1988 Auctioning Commercial Property
1977 Farm Auction
2011 NAA Charity Auction
“Mr. Joe” 2019
Posted: 01/27/2016

The perfect auction for real estate investors

Longtime business leader A.B. Rose to sell properties at auction

ROCKY MOUNT, North Carolina (Jan. 27, 2016) — After a lifetime of living and doing business in North Carolina, A.B. Rose and wife Carol are planning to move to Arizona. And that means his lakeside home, an office building, commercial land and other Nash County properties need to be sold.

So Rose has retained John Dixon & Associates to market 18 of his properties in a live auction set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Rocky Mount. “I used an auction to sell business assets, so I was familiar with the process. This will clear the way to move to where we can downsize and be closer to family,” said Rose, whose A.B. Rose Construction Company closed in 2009. 

The five-bedroom home at 905 Old Mill Road sits on almost eight acres overlooking a 10-acre city-owned lake for which the owner of the home will have exclusive use. “The lake was a rock quarry to which we retained the exclusive rights, which will pass on to the buyer. It’s maintained by the City of Rocky Mount,” said Rose.

Another highlight in the auction will include the two-story office building at 430 S Wesleyan Boulevard in Rocky Mount. “This building has room for 10 offices, as well as a reception area, work room, file room, three restrooms and a full bath. It would be a great location for an insurance agency or almost any type of professional office,” said John Dixon, president of the auction company.

Also selling will be a 114-acre farm with a home for rental income, and a commercial property with an equipment shed, shop and shelter buildings. Other properties include several commercial land tracts, five of which are along S Wesleyan Boulevard.

Bidders will also be able to participate online while viewing a live simulcast.

Individuals seeking additional information may visit www.johndixon.com or call 404-625-6410.

John Dixon & Associates, based in Atlanta with offices in Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina, is one of the nation’s largest auctioneers of real estate properties, including land, homes, developments, condominiums, farms and other properties owned by individuals, investors, banks and other institutions.

Posted: 07/22/2015

Market Shift: Becoming a Seller’s Market

The real estate market seems to be shifting to more of a seller’s market, and that means it’s a good time for investors and others to market their property through one of our Multi-Seller Auctions. Carl Carter and I talked about these changes, and about what sellers can expect when they consider selling in a John Dixon Auction.

Posted: 02/04/2015

Why a live John Dixon auction with simulcast beats online-only

A lot of folks are saying that an online-only auction gets results that are just as good as a live auction. I beg to differ, and I think you can see why in this little video clip that shows the energy we put into a live auction. As you watch, there are two important things to remember: (1) You’re only seeing about half the bidders, because the others are watching all the action and bidding over the Internet, and (2) the live auction reflects weeks of hard work at getting photos, putting up signs, conducting due diligence and and preparing each property for sale. 

Best of all, you don’t have to be a banker or big portfolio manager to sell in a John Dixon auction. The auction you’re watching actually had a number of different sellers, some of whom sold only one or two properties. By combining the resources of multiple sellers, we enable virtually anybody with real estate to sell it at auction. 

Posted: 01/30/2015

How Multi-Seller Auctions Can Help You Sell Your Real Estate

We at John Dixon & Associates are best known for our multi-property auctions for banks. But you don’t have to be a bank or a big institution to sell property in a John Dixon auction. Our Multi-Seller Auctions pool the properties and share the costs among all the sellers, so you can sell your property at auction even if you only have one or pieces. This is ideally suited for individuals, small investors or even large portfolio investors who just have a couple of properties to sell. 

After a recent Multi-Seller Auction, I sat down with Carl Carter to talk about the process and how it can enable more property owners to sell at auction.

Posted: 01/06/2015

Upcoming auctions in Tallahassee, Atlanta

Our year is off to a great start, and we’re already bearing down on our first two auctions. One noteworthy thing about these two sales is that they feature real estate from a number of different sellers. We’ll be putting more emphasis on multi-seller auctions during 2015, because the people who have been buying real estate investments for the past five or six years are now reaching a point where they’re ready to sell some of those properties. 

While we’ve conducted a lot of auctions for banks and other financial institutions — and will continue to do so — we’ve seen a great deal of real estate move from the hands of banks (who acquired it as a result of foreclosures during the financial crisis) to investors who have been building up their portfolios. By pooling the properties for these investors and individuals, we can enable institutions, investors and individuals of all sizes to sell their properties in a John Dixon Auction!   

Historic College Park home featured in upcoming real estate auctions in Georgia and Florida

ATLANTA, Ga. (January 6, 2015) — The Palmour House – a Victorian mansion built in 1892 for the founder of what is now Emory Dental School – will be offered at auction Wednesday, Jan. 28, headlining a group of approximately 70 property offerings. John Dixon & Associates will manage the event.

The restored home is now being used primarily as office space. It was originally commissioned by Dr. William Crenshaw, founder of Atlanta Dental College, now part of Emory.

Other Georgia properties set to sell the same day include a shopping center in Rome, a convenience store in Gwinnett County, and a Macon warehouse, as well as homes, apartment buildings, and residential and commercial land. The auction will begin at 11 a.m. at the John Dixon & Associates headquarters at 200 Cobb Parkway North, Suite 120, Marietta, Ga.

The Atlanta auction is the second of two auctions of properties. The first event will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27, at the Holiday Inn at 2725 Graves Road in Tallahassee. The Tallahassee auction will feature a 75-acre industrial property in Hosford, formerly used as a wood chip mill. “This is a great site for someone interested in using it for the lumber or construction industry, because it’s right on the railroad tracks and has building-related businesses on either side,” said Dixon. Other Florida properties include residential and commercial land in Tallahassee, Panama City, Midway and other cities.

Dixon said both events will feature properties offered primarily by lenders.  “By combining properties from a number of banks, investors and others, we’re able to offer a really good selection that will be of interest to real estate investors as well as individuals. This will be the first big opportunity to buy bank-owned real estate in 2015, and by all indications there will be fewer properties coming to auction this year because bank inventories are dwindling,” he said.

Individuals seeking additional information may visit www.johndixon.com or call 800-479-1763.

John Dixon & Associates, based in Atlanta with offices in Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina, is one of the nation’s largest auctioneers of real estate properties, including land, homes, developments, condominiums, farms and other properties owned by individuals, investors, banks and other institutions.

Posted: 12/03/2014

What’s ahead for real estate auctions in 2015?

As we move further into the holiday season, we at John Dixon & Associates are busy wrapping up this year’s transactions and lining up auctions for 2015. We’ve had a great year, helping banks and individuals get their properties sold and enabling buyers to build up their real estate investment portfolios.  But what’s ahead? After a recent sale, Carl Carter and I found a quiet corner and turned on the recorder to talk about what we expect.

Posted: 08/13/2014

Investing by headlines can lead to bad decisions

I’ll confess that I get frustrated at times with the way media cover financial news. I wouldn’t mind if it were just a matter of sensationalism, but it’s not always that simple. At times, media show such a lack of perspective that stories convey the exact opposite of what is really the case.

Take this headline from a recent Wall Street Journal:

Home-Price Growth Slows Sharply, Case-Shiller saysIndex Says Year-Over-Year Growth rate is Lowest Since February 2013

Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? And I’ll say at the outset that the facts in the story are basically correct. But let’s look more closely. Just what does it mean to “slow sharply,” anyway? It sounds almost like home prices are crashing and burning. But right there in the second sentence, it tells us that the S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major cities shows home prices rising 9.3%. That doesn’t exactly sound like a “batten-down-the-hatches” storm to me.

If our homes appreciated by 9.3% every year, we’d all be in high cotton. So why the hysteria? Because economists had been expecting prices to rise by 9.9%, which would still be down from 10.8% the previous year.

In truth, even a growth rate of 9.3% is probably unsustainable. After all the pain we’ve been through in recent years, the last thing we need is an overheated market. Rather, what we need is a good, healthy market for real estate owners – whether homeowners or investors – to prosper. And I’m seeing a lot of signs that we have just such a healthy market. Despite some bumps coinciding with international turmoil and the default of Argentina on its debt, the stock markets have continued their long term bull market.

It’s also good to note that people are paying their bills. The S&P/Experian Second Mortgage Default Index shows that the default rate on second mortgages is holding steady at a low 0.57 percent, having remained well under 1 percent for more than two years. When you consider that 4.35 percent were defaulting on their mortgages five years ago, I’d say we’re in pretty good shape by comparison.

This, of course, is important because when we’re investing in rental properties, we naturally want to make sure people can pay the rent – or qualify for mortgages on properties we’re selling.

This translates into a good environment for us, because the current environment is positive for both sellers and buyers. And in a John Dixon & Associates auction, you don’t have to worry about whether you’re getting a fair price. The competitive nature of the auction takes care of that!

Posted: 05/05/2014

Assessing the various auction types

There are a lot of ways to do an auction these days, and various auction companies tend to favor one or the other. This can be confusing to someone who wants to sell, whether it’s a single property or an entire portfolio.

To touch on the ultimate question of which is best, the answer is that it depends. Let’s walk through the major ones one by one and consider the various advantages and disadvantages. While all of the methods can be used for either real estate or other assets (such as personal property or machinery), I’m going to focus on real estate, because that’s our main business at John Dixon & Associates.

Before I describe the various approaches, let me say that regardless of the one you go with, you need to make sure that your auction company meets several criteria:

  • Up to the marketing challenge. Use one that will actively market your property and provide detailed information to bidders. No matter which format you use, it’s critical to remember that people buying real estate always need to see the property and do their “due diligence” research, even if they’re buying online. That means you need to use a company that will make provisions for inspections and provide the necessary documents. The property needs to be presented favorably with good photography, of course, and bidders need to be properly qualified to ensure the integrity of the process.
  • Properly equipped. Ensure that your company has the right tools for the format it is using. For example, if you’re doing an Internet-only auction, you’ll need to make sure the company has a proven, secure, user-friendly system for displaying your property, qualifying bidders, and taking bids. If it’s a live auction with simulcast, ensure that the audio, video and connectivity are reliable, and that the bid assistant communicating with the online bidders is qualified to handle any questions that come up, whether technical or related to the property.
  • Properly licensed. License requirements for auctioneers and real estate brokers vary from state to state. Make sure your company is properly licensed for your sale.

Now, let’s move on to some of the auctions available.

Live Auction
Before we move on to the various types of auctions involving the Internet, it’s important to note that even today, the live, public-outcry auction continues to be the heart and soul of the auction industry. This is where my roots are, and even when we make use of the Internet, the overwhelming majority of our sales involve a live auction, where people gather into a room and enter their bids while a bid caller conducts the sale. This is also a favorite for most of our bidders and is most assuredly the most fun!

Timed Internet Auction

When it comes to auctions using Internet technology, this is probably the format with which most people are familiar, because it bears similarities to the format on EBay. Your property is shown with full information, photos and other critical information, and bidders may enter their bids within a defined timetable. This timetable can be for weeks or just a few days, but lately, more auction companies seem to favor shorter time periods.

Here are some of the advantages of a Timed Internet Auction:

  • Bidders may choose any time to enter their bids within the allotted time frame.
  • A bidder may enter a maximum bid, with the system raising the bid up to that amount as needed.
  • Costs may be lower because the auctioneer may not incur the costs of a live auction.

A common concern, of course, is that many feel that the more relaxed time frame and the absence of a live auctioneer can reduce the urgency and ability to get the highest possible price.

Timed online followed by live auction

In this hybrid arrangement, an online Internet auction is conducted in the days leading up to the live auction, then the high bid serves as the opening bid for the live auction. Its use for real estate appears to be declining, but there are still a number of companies using it. It’s still very common in auctions of personal property. Since we rarely sell personal property, we’ve had few occasions to use it.

One reason often given for using this method is that it caters to both the bidder who prefers an online format and the one who prefers to participate in a live auction. Since most serious bidders are going to want to participate up to the very end, most would probably participate in the live event regardless of whether they had entered online bids, which would seem to make the online unnecessary. However, the online portion might provide a “security blanket” of bids going into the live event.

Live auction with simulcast

This is the format we use most commonly at John Dixon & Associates, because it allows bidders to be either live in the room or bidding via the Internet, depending on which they prefer. (Older bidders seem to prefer live bidding, while younger ones are more likely to bid online.) Either way, they compete head to head, at the same time, for the same properties.

It’s common for us to sell 30, 40 or even 50 percent of our properties in a major portfolio auction to online bidders. This can vary widely, of course, depending on the number, type and value of assets being sold.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s done well

There are more possibilities and twists, but these are the major ones. Ultimately, the most important thing is to do it well, and to work with a company that has a strong track record for professionalism, integrity and solid results.

We’ll be talking about these and other options in a webinar on May 8, from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern. You can register here.

Meanwhile, we can have a dialogue without waiting until we can meet in real time, so I invite you to offer your comments on this post.

Posted: 12/19/2013

How an auction can help you manage your real estate portfolio

For several years, when people thought about the sale of institution-owned real estate, they automatically thought in terms of banks selling foreclosed properties. 

There were a lot of good reasons for that. The credit collapse was still fresh on everybody’s mind, and the banks – through foreclosure – had huge inventories of homes, condominiums, stores, shopping centers, subdivision lots and other residential and commercial property that had to be sold.

We at John Dixon and Associates have sold a great deal of that real estate at auction, with such good results that the banks turned to us time and again. We expect to sell a great deal more in 2014.

All this time, other classes of real estate portfolio managers have been watching with interest.

On the surface, their challenge is similar to that of the banks, with a huge difference: They generally don’t have to sell. They’re in the business of owning real estate. But as with any other type investment, there’s a time to reduce some holdings and raise money to redeploy into other areas.

Some properties may have been acquired years ago and no longer fit their current direction. Some are underperforming. But selling large numbers of properties one-on-one can be laborious, slow and expensive, so they just manage them, bide their time and make the most of it.

Today, the real estate market is excellent, and inventories of properties for sale are at or near normal levels. This creates the ideal market for investors of all sizes and types to make more use of auctions for trimming their own portfolios.

Here are some ways a John Dixon and Associates auction can help institutions:

  • Portfolio balancing
  • Selling of underperforming, excess or non-core assets
  • Selling properties with excessively high holding cost
  • Improving the institution’s cash position
  • Complete the sale within a strategic time frame (e.g., end of quarter)

I invite anyone with portfolio management problems to give me a call at 770-425-1141. Our team of real estate experts can review your portfolio and give you a candid assessment of what a John Dixon and Associates may be able to do for you.