ATLANTA-In a mega deal that saw 187 assets and almost as many bank notes trade, Auction.com has cleared another $2 billion worth of commercial properties off the boards in the Southeast. This time around, local brokers got involved.

Auction.com saw $453 million in sales, with more than $600 million in unpaid principal balances sold. The assets attracted a purchase price to reserve rate of 111%. Mac McCall, head of Franklin Street’s Atlanta office, tells GlobeSt.com that several institutional sellers hired brokers to help make the most of the opportunity, a new trend in the auction process.

“At the end of the day a broker adds a lot of value,” says McCall. “Brokers sell the deal and the long-term upside of the deal. Whereas at an auction it’s buyer versus buyer, when you get a broker involved it’s buyer versus seller.”

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The non-performing notes and commercial REO properties were located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Starting bids ranged from $500 to $10.5 million, and included multifamily, mobile home parks, retail, mixed-use, hotel, land, self-storage, office, industrial and special-purpose assets.

McCall handled one of the Atlanta-area properties in the auction for a special servicer. The owner hired Franklin Street in tandem with Auction.com to get what he calls the “best of both worlds.” The special servicers got the press that online auctions generate, as well as the “boots on the ground” traditional approach from brokers.

“The properties were being marketed on price, but we put actually got on the phone and followed up with people that looked at the information on the auctioneer’s site and did a sales pitch,” McCall says. “So instead of bidders just digesting the information, we were able to demonstrate the long-term value of the deal.”