Against the tide: Auctions popular way to liquidate

Tim Hash is a ringleader beneath a big, white tent. The auctioneer entertains the crowd with his voice while coaxing them to open their wallets.

Business doubled this year for Hash's company, Mountain City Realty & Auction LLC.

"Because of the recession, our seller clients have found that it's a good time to sell real estate at auction," said Hash, who doubles as an associate broker with MKB Realtors. "Once upon a time -- three years ago -- we as Realtors didn't always even get a sign in the yard before people would be wanting to buy it. But things have changed drastically."

Now, sellers are looking to get real estate off the market quickly and pocket the cash rather than wait out the recession. Live auctions provide the solution: sell a house and liquidate a lifetime's worth of assets in a few hours.

Residential real estate alone had $17.1 billion gross sales nationally last year, increasing every year since 2003, when gross sales were $11.5 billion, according to the National Auctioneers Association. Live auctions sold goods valued at $268.4 billion in 2008, a 37 percent increase from six years earlier, the association reported.

"Virginia is very auction-savvy and very auction-minded," said John Nicholls, president of Virginia Auctioneers Association and one of the rock stars of the auction world. He's won the International Auctioneers Championship and "cries" for Barrett-Jackson Auction Co., the king of collector car auctions. "People are accustomed to doing business this way and aren't scared of the process."

Rural areas and Southern states typically feel strong historical ties to auctions, making the counties around Roanoke ideal for Hash. Around here, the auctioneers sometimes call each other "Colonel," to mimic language used in Civil War auctions of captured spoils, Hash said.

Video: Auctioneer's business goes against the economic tide

Video by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
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Hash and his partner auctioneer, Gary Dogan, called for six hours, with no breaks, on Oct. 17 at the Lois Dowdy estate sale. A sale similar to Dowdy's, with more than 500 items across the block -- almost everything in the house except the house itself -- brings in about $25,000 in revenue. Hash declined to name sales numbers from this particular auction. Mountain City's profits come from an array of services offered, from marketing the sale to setting up and taking out the trash.

The company holds about 15 auctions a year, from spring to fall. One-third of those sell real estate. If a seller prefers not to auction his house, Hash will list it through MKB.

Beneath the tent in Dowdy's Mount Pleasant back yard, Ed Swedenborg, 68, a Hash auction regular, kept his No. 103 bid card in his shirt pocket. He planned to drop $200 to $300, his usual amount, on mostly tools and gifts for his grandchildren that morning.

Swedenborg's spoils one hour into the proceedings: an orange cooler ($10), a box of flashlights ($2) and some bedsheets. He had driven from his home in Buchanan with a Sears catalog in his car, so he could get an early idea of prices.

"They're pleasant people to work with," he said about why he follows Mountain City. "They move it quickly and don't draw it out."

About 85 bidders turned out for the Dowdy sale, many coming to bid on a 1996 Toyota Camry ($3,000), furniture or a collection of seven guns.

"They tend to go for more than they're worth," said Aaron Shutts, 36, of Troutville as his 5-year-old son, Brogan, peeked at the firearm-filled tabletop. "But auctions are exciting, period."

Carl Powers, 64, of Stewartsville coolly won two pistols with a flash of his bidder number from his back pocket. The .45-caliber Kimber ($750) and the .45-caliber Colt auto pistol ($710) were good buys, Powers said, that were worth more than $2,000 total.

Hash has learned Powers' and Swedenborg's buying habits, and he works to make his auctions fun for newcomers and regulars alike, he said.

Hash, 51, first attended auctions in Roanoke County with his grandfather, a farmer, to buy cattle. To hold close the memories, he went to Mendenhall School of Auctioneering in North Carolina 25 years ago.

Hash's speaking voice is warm, quiet and metered, distinct from the rat-a-tat phrasing of his professional call. He stumbled to name the words he uses to string together prices.

"Some of the things I don't know, so let me just sell something for you."

He picked up a cellphone, the only item sitting on the long conference table at the MKB office on Electric Road.

"Would you give a hundred dollars here?" he asked the imaginary crowd across the table. After 20 seconds of flipping his voice through the phrases, he settled the price at $65.


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