Commercial brokers bemoan end of wheeling-dealing era.

When Craig Stevens looks at the recent infusion of Wall Street investors into the Los Angeles real estate market, he sees the end of an era. And the end of a lifestyle.

"I'm a dinosaur," said Stevens, a self-described "rainmaker" commercial broker who has sold more than $1 billion in real estate during his 25 years in the business.

"Real estate used to be about salesmanship - schmoozing and socializing and getting people to trust you. Now it's just the spreadsheet that's based on very little knowledge."

Stevens, 53, finds his career at a crossroads now that the investment terrain has changed around him. He left the commercial brokerage Lee and Associates in December because he felt that "the guys back on Wall Street" - the real estate investment trusts and opportunity funds -weren't interested in mid-sized brokerages when dealing with the L.A. market. Instead, they chose either national commercial brokerages that offer an armada of analytical services or boutique firms that intimately know niche markets, he said.

Stevens, who is currently running a real estate consulting and brokerage operation out of his Sherman Oaks home, plans to join either a national or boutique firm by next month, But he looks toward his future with some resignation.

"It's not as much fun anymore," he said. "You don't have the relationship with the client that used to be there."

Allan Kotin, a real estate consultant at KMG Consulting, agrees that Wall Street has changed the way that West Coast brokers operate. And brokers, such as Stevens, are being hurt the most.

Those brokers "historically sold properties by using their personal knowledge," Kotin said. "Investors today are buying less into personal judgment and more into statistical and financial analysis."

That's in part because today's investors are more publicly accountable for their investments than the real estate buyers of the '80s.

Nationwide, REITS are buying more commercial properly these days than any other investor group. REITs accounted for 45.1 percent of the 750 big-property buys totaling $12.1 billion in the first quarter, according to the Koll National Real Estate Index report. That's up from 33.2 percent of the 1,200 similarly sized properties purchased in the fourth quarter.

Individual investors and partnerships accounted for 20.7 percent of the transactions in the first quarter, down from 31.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 1996, according to the Koll report.

Unlike the private investors who once ruled L.A. real estate, REITs have to constantly churn revenue in order to please their stockholders. Every potential investment has an estimated earnings per share yield.

"It used to be that you'd do a deal by yourself- just write it on the back of an envelope," said Howard Sadowsky, a regional manager who has been with commercial brokerage firm Julien J. Studley since 1971. "Now it needs to be thoroughly supported by financial analysis."

For a major real estate transaction today, a broker is flanked by a team of three or four specialists who can show the building's potential internal rate of return, provide a tax analysis as well as devise a targeted marketing campaign for potential tenants.

That team approach dilutes the broker's commission, said Larry, Kosmont, president of Kosmont & Associates Inc., a consulting firm. But commissions, the staple of the sales force, aren't as common as it once was.

Several real estate investment trusts brought their landlord leasing operations in-house, rather than hiring a commercial brokerage firm, in order to increase revenues. Many REITs pay in-house brokers a salary rather than the traditional commission.

REITs and institutional investors who don't have in-house leasing often outsource their leasing operations for a flat, per square foot fee or an hourly consulting rate.

Peter Best is an example of a broker who has gone from entrepreneur to employee. He recently left the commercial brokerage Grubb & Ellis Co. after 13 years to become senior marketing director for the Century Plaza Towers, which is owned by the property management and leasing firm Tooley & Co.

Best's responsibilities now involve coordinating property management services with the demands of tenants - a change from his days in the field when he would jump into his car 12 times each day to meet clients.

"Now I park my car in the lot at 7:30 (a.m.) and get back into it at 7:30 (p.m.)," he said.

Best was a landlord leasing agent at Grubb and Ellis, where he noticed that the brokerage finn was increasingly shut out of institutional investment deals. Most investors were looking for a property management firm teamed together with a leasing group, a trend Best expects to continue as "ownership blocks of quality, high profile properties will get held by a smaller and smaller group of investors," he said.

Chris Baer, a landlord representative at Grubb and Ellis in the Valley for 11 years, has also taken note of the fact that the big players - such as Beverly Hills-based Arden Realty Inc. and Douglas Emmett Realty Advisors - are increasingly using in-house leasing agents.

Although he hasn't seen a decrease in his business yet, Baer said the trend has been a source of some concern for his future. "I don't know what I'd do if that really happens, to be honest," he said.

Some brokers look at the rise of REITs and see opportunities. Brokers who deal in niche markets said their business has taken off as Wall Street investment groups want local knowledge of tenants.

The 14-broker firm Westmac Commercial Brokerage Co. formed nine years ago to handle tenant leasing and sales of Westside office space, said David Thurman, senior vice president.

Thurman agrees that the era of "rainmaker" broker might be over, but he says there's plenty of money to be made in the current market. He said there's little difference between a $60 million deal and a $6 million deal these days because the fee is often capped for the larger deal and a percent commission for the smaller one.

"Many brokers continue to make a very, very good living - into the high six figures," he said.

Micheal Geller and Jeffrey Resnick, principal owners of First Property Reality Corp., established their realty nine years ago to service REITs, Wall Street and "syndicators" - an individual who generates money from institutional investors. Like Westmac, the 14-broker realty focuses on primarily office buildings on the Westside. and they said this has been their most successful year to date.