Has been an integral component of the real estate market in the Rome area for almost 60 years.
There has always been magic in the rhythmical chant of an auctioneer. Still, occasionally, it takes a little something extra from the sales crew working the crowd at an auction to seal a deal. Such was the beginning of the Dempsey Auction Company, which has been an integral component of the real estate market in the Rome area for almost 60 years. Now a fourth-generation auction house, Dempsey can trace its origin back to the 1940s when Sproull Dempsey decided to sell the family farm at auction.
Sproull wasn’t happy with the way bidding was going, so he jumped into the crowd to start hawking the farm himself! Following the sale, the auctioneer offered him a job and the rest, as they say, is history. It took well over a decade for Dempsey to decide to go into business for himself. It was 1965 when Sproull, his sons, Sproull Jr. and Ray, formed Dempsey and Sons Auction.
Ray Dempsey currently serves as the CEO, and his son, Lou Dempsey, is President of the auction business, managing day-to-day operations.
Over the years, the company has grown to the point where it is licensed to conduct auctions in Alabama, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Florida, in addition to its home base in Georgia.
But times are changing. Computers and the Internet are close to the point where live, on-site auctions are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Every auction conducted by Dempsey now has an online aspect. Lou’s son Chase Tolbert has taken online sales to the next level. Dempsey Auction is part of the MarkNet Alliance, which includes more than 60 of the top-tier auction companies in the United States that share information, buyers, and sellers. He said less than 10% of the companies that are part of the alliance offer live on-site under-the-tent auctions.
Here are some recent examples of how the auction business has changed. Dempsey had a 300+ acre farm on the block. “A man bought it, and he was in a deer stand in San Antonio, Texas. Chase had him on the phone and online.” Dempsey said. “They communicated through text, we sent him a DocuSign agreement, and we had a signed contract back before we left the property.”
A second sale occurred in Tennessee in April of 2024. “We sold every bit of it online, never met the first buyer,” Dempsey said. “$7.9 million worth of real estate, and we never met the first buyer. I talked to them on the phone and did business with the lawyers without ever going into their office.”
“A lot of people sit in our office; they won’t bid publicly, but they’ll bid online. They don’t want people to see them bidding,” Dempsey said.
Online bidding has increased participation in auctions and, in many cases, increased prices for sellers. Dempsey said a farm in Dothan, Alabama, recently sold to a buyer in Virginia who valued the land at $25,000 an acre. The local folks valued it at closer to $10,000 an acre.
He said buyers on the West Coast are likely to be able to sell their property out there for $1.5 million and then move to a comparable home in the Rome area or elsewhere in the Southeast for a third of that.
Dempsey said that live on-site auctions will still be
viable when people are selling what might be considered an emotionally charged piece of property, a lake or resort property. “I want you to see the jet skis going by. I want you to see kids catching fish or the sun setting over the mountain,” Dempsey said. The ground sales agent can often nudge the bidder into raising the price by another couple thousand dollars.
The company has 11 employees and contract personnel who do everything from drone photography to internet marketing.
The company is currently housed in redecorated offices at Glenn Milner Blvd. A highlight of the new facility is a large events room, where people can watch an auction on a large-screen television set and do their bidding in comfort and privacy. Community organizations can also rent the room.
The company has long been a significant supporter of
nonprofit organizations that help meet a cross-section of community needs. Over the years, Dempsey has conducted fund-raising auctions for St. Mary’s Catholic School, Cancer Navigators, the Exchange Club Family Resource Center, Habitat for Humanity, Darlington School, and many others.
