A commercial broker needs the same set of licenses as residential salespersons with the focus on income-producing properties rather than residences. This is the specialty called the commercial investment segment of the real estate industry.

Like residential real estate, it takes a while to get going as a commercial broker or agent. Commercial transactions are larger, but less frequent. It takes many more months to bring in income, and the earnings are less predictable than in residential real estate - you could have a $30 million dollar year one year and zero the next year.

"On the positive side, the hours are better and you can move the decimal points on the right," winks John M. (Jack) Peckham III, CCIM, CIPS, RECS.

"In cyberspace, commercial real estate is exciting because of the tools," explains Peckham. "When I get a listing, I use a series of discussion groups so with just a few messages, I can be in touch with as many 20,000 investors or commercial professionals."

It's called push marketing. Peckham used such tools to close a $41,000,000 property last year. "And in 20 percent of the time," adds Peckham. "I have no salespeople, no secretary. And I'm not the greatest salesman in the world."

Peckham admits he doesn't type, and wears fuzzy slippers to work where he commutes 19 seconds by elevator from his home on the 24th floor. But taking business fashion casually doesn't mean he doesn't know how to market and close buildings. Using the Internet, Peckham recently closed a $28 million property for which he has never seen or met the buyer or the buyer's agent.

How does he do it? Peckham has been a commercial broker in Boston for nearly four decades. An early adapter of the Internet, he has to date sold over $1 billion in real estate using technology.

Peckham specializes in real estate investment properties such as shopping centers, apartment buildings, office buildings, and net-leased (leased to a single tenant where the tenant pays most or all of the operating expenses to the owner) properties.

Peckham, also the author of The Guide to Income-producing Properties, recalls that it was far more difficult for a residential agent to transition to commercial real estate when he started his career. "Today, the transition is easier because of the existence of the Internet." In residential, the agent had the keys to the inventory via the MLS book, but no such book existed in commercial real estate.

"You had to join a firm that had inventory and there was very little cooperation," says Peckham. "Today, it is far easier, particularly for the cyber-savvy to make the transition."

Peckham also has something of an inside track - one he built himself. He is the executive director of The Real Estate Cyberspace Society, whose purpose is to provide tools and services to real estate practitioners to help them leverage the Internet in their real estate specialty. Years before the inception of the e-PRO, Society members held the RECS designation which stands for Real Estate Cyberspace Specialist. Half of the society's membership are commercial brokers and the other half are residential brokers and agents.

The importance of online discussion groups

The Society offers a product for commercial brokers which has rolled up all the commercial discussion groups (broker/investor emailing lists) and put them into a Dealmaking Disk that received a Product Pick of the month by REALTOR Magazine. This disk eliminates two problems for commercial brokers who are migrating their services to the Internet - where to find discussion groups and how to use them.

The disk gives a six-step, self-contained action plan to marketing commercial investment real estate featuring 15 of the most "powerful commercial investment discussion groups capable of reaching between 20,000 and 30,000 real estate investors or practitioners in five minutes.

The six steps are:

1. Post your listing to your own and your company's web site
2. Post your listing to other web sites
3. Use email to reach wide network of potential buyers
4. Prospect
5. Use custom support system to drive traffic to your web site (links, search engine placement, and more)
6. Use the custom presentation template to a buyer or seller or a prospect for services (appraisal, property management)

"The message is these techniques that are available are so much alike regardless of denomination," says Peckham. "The chapters are geographic, not residential or commercial, these are professionals who use these to enhance their effectiveness, and there are sections that have to do with specialty. Commercial agents can talk about special adaptations of their specialty - residential, commercial, real estate auction, international, property management, appraisal, counselors, exchangers ( per tax codes), legal, mortgage financing, land and agricultural, and information and service providers."

The disks are revised and updated once a year, and give brokers:

1. Tools which are equally applicable to both residential and commercial real estate
2. A vast inventory of investment properties from such sources as Loopnet.com, Costar.com, Property.com and online commercial other leaders.
3. The ability to reach prospects is wide open through the use of discussion groups

How does the online commercial broker get clients? Peckham says "You go to Action Step 6," he explains. "You have the inventory and the ability to reach customers and we have a template to design a customized presentation for buyers or sellers of property and highlight your skills. What will separate you is your skill in using cyberspace."

Peckham got the idea from doing a one-day, six-hour course using the Internet. Attended by over 200 residential and commercial brokers, the class also had two young brokers, 27, who had an opportunity to market an $1.8 million listing on Cape Cod. After the seminar, they called Peckham three days later and told him they not only got the listing, but had beaten Sotheby's to it. "They differentiated themselves from the rest of the pack and showed the seller what they could do," said Peckham.

"This is a great time and it's the most exciting business to be in," says Peckham. "To go to my screen and find a specific property for a buyer, but also to be able to register those needs and get emails and get a match for that buyer. That just scratches the surface."

Other resources

Since 1989, Property.com has offered commercial real estate services over the Internet.

Featuring listings for sale, leas or management, Property.com also offers eight mailing lists for commercial brokers and other agents. There are also forums, or newsgroups, in the different categories with over 9,600 members, 40 percent of which are other brokers. The rest are investors. To join, go to forums@dealmakers.com.

It's free to post information, which does not have to be in a sophisticated form says site owner Ted Kraus. "This is just the first pass - you can put something like "Shopping center for sale, 128,000 square feet, city, and your contact information. "

Most people on the list won't be interested, but you might get an email that says, "Send me a package." You package can all be on the Internet - photos, demographics, and financial information about tenants, leases, and more. You can put this information on your homepage."

CommercialSource.com is official Web site of the REALTOR Commercial Alliance (RCA,) the commercial branch of the N.A.R. Operated by Loopnet, the site offers a directory of agents as well as properties for sale. The RCA is a group of about 50 practitioners who serve as an advisory board to try to work together and gear the N.A.R toward providing more commercial resources. The group puts out a newsletter quarterly to over 12,000 commercial Realtors. The group also sponsors the annual Transact 2000 convention, held every September in Chicago.