Commercial sites hit the Internet.

While it took the commercial brokerage community a longer time than their brethren home-sellers to get with 'the Net," over the last year, amalgamated sites for finding and buying commercial buildings and renting office space have begun to pop up.

Most of these have been started by netsavvy brokers, and some are using the Internet to mine brokerage leads for themselves. But for the most part, these entrepreneurs let the technology do the work, providing the searcher a way to directly contact the owner or broker.

In this game, its the amalgamation of information and offerings that is paying the way. Most are not charging owners at all for the moment -- and expect to grow their revenue through the sale of ads or priority listings.

Some hope to add residential listings, or become the morning read for owners and brokers.

But those that succeed will have to attract the office seeker from Peoria hoping to take a bite of the Big Apple, or the Midtown local being outted by higher rents, better than the cold callers, and also ferret out investors with dollar or euros unknown to the elite commercial sales community.

Keep in mind what Pam Liebman, director of sales and marketing for the Corcoran Group, said last week: "I have never seen a market where more people want to be developers." It's not the group. of doctors or dentists with $10 million to invest in a building that's news -- it's trying to find the product.

Here is a run down on some of the sites:

NyProperty.com has been around for about a year. This is a well-organized and information packed site founded by Neil Jacobson and Ciaran Swift. There are commercial flews bits, editorials, links to buildings and management companies, some media, trade groups and other resources. One Internet no-no: when linked, the nyproperty.com left side menu remains on the screen.

Cityfeet.com is positioning itself to help owner rep brokers reach office and retail tenants directly. The site is targeted towards the small space user, which founder Guy Shanon defines now at less than 5,000 square feet.

"What's so special about the Internet? It's about reaching a targeted audience in a costeffective way," explained Shanon. While listings are currently free, and later are expected to be about $100 a month, "All the fees we make charging for listings we'll end up spending on marketing, so we're an efficient way to market listings."

By paying more, companies can become sponsors and provide information pages that can also be used to showcase their own firm's services by bringing the browser back to their own web site.

Shanon is following the venture capitalist pipeline and is currently amalgamating brokerage and ownership listings through numerous presentations. He previously toiled in investment sales at Daiwa Securities, Jones Lang Wootton and GB Commercial before getting his MBA at Columbia and founding the site.

To reach space renters, he's advertising the site in business publications and is linking to other sites. Building owners can currently list spaces for free.

Lookingforspace.com has been quietly assembled by Neal J. Lerner over the last year through hard work and a good sized staff. "We offer a profusion of robustness," he said, and this is so.

The well-assembled site is a knockout, providing information on hundreds of city buildings and other East Coast buildings, along with photos and leasing details. Brokers will be given a one-line listing, and any direct spaces are free of charge. But enhanced listings and for subleases will be by subscription.

"We will always have an excellent database, but if they want more exposure or a more enhanced look, they will avail themselves of the enhanced services," he said. "That can include photos and information about themselves, for instance. The site can be used to garner clients for themselves or the buildings they represent."

LookingForSpace.com is also targeted towards the small broker who doesn't have a research staff or access to the expensive services. They can freely and efficiently mine the site for their clients by creating up to 10 search surveys. Beginning in November, as listings meeting the selected criteria come in, brokers and other surfers that have requested die information will be e-mailed the details.

Lerner is working on the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut metropolitan regions, plus 'Boston and Washington.

Gayle & Wentworth has already input 130 buildings; and other brokerages are signing on daily. An interactive form can be easily filled out by brokers adding space, or they can call [phone]. or e-mail to [e-mail]. "Keeping it current is the most important thing, "agreed Lerner.

Comps.com is a national service that's getting big boosts. It toooffers e-mail up-dates and free listings. We didn't have the patience to wait for the short user agreement to download and then get a response back. Perhaps it was because it was after 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and the world was surfing after school.

Propertyfirst.com is left coast-based and graphics heavy. The news page led to press releases or news articles about the company itself. Users need proprietary search software that for now is free. In January, that could change. Companies signed up to list properties include CB Commercial.

Loopnet.com has a nifty e-mail news feature that usually has old Inman news recycled a few days or weeks later. We can never remember passwords, and while the site didn't lock us out, it only offered us listings more than seven days old without it. That was fine, except I wanted a minimum of $1 million offerings, and it provided all listings, both over and under $1 million. (Yes, I filled the form out correctly!) It also decided to start with listings that didn't specify a town, and then started in on die "A's" for Albany. After 40 of those at 20 seconds per download, I got bored. Bye bye Loopnet.

IntelliSpace.net starts with a screen that screams, "If I said you had a nice body, would you hold it against me." The next screen had in tiny letters, "At least we have a quick line that works." Sorry dear advertiser, it gave me negative vibes, and except for the sky blue color, the two screen lead into die site was totally inappropriate. Before recognizing the name, I had clicked on an ad at anodier site, and I thought this site linked to something to help find office space. Three screens later I still wasn't getting anywhere near a listing and then realized the space was about wiring, silly me. If you want your building wired, give them a call.

PropertyGo.com is a great site clean, neat, quick loading and easy to decipher. One problem: It offered me New York as a state, but wouldn't take any county but Los Angeles or San Diego. It couldn't find New York County and without a county, I was going nowhere. So I left.

Offices2share.com is quick and simple. Created by broker Jeffrey Landers, the listings are grouped by state. But there is no organization by area and the 140 individual New York State listings had Nassau County spaces followed by Downtown New York spaces, followed by Queens. This caters to very small office 'users with typically short lease terms left. Share with photographers or lawyers. If there's any brokers listing here, they are hiding.

BrimlowRe.com is broker David Brimlow's site, and it caters to the small entry office user and the buyer of buildings. Something about our browser or access number couldn't click with his site, although both he and his web hoster swore it was there. Brimlow says the site contains information about what tenants need to have compiled in order to do a deal. "It gives you everything needed to put a deal together, and explains the time-frame, including how long it takes to accomplish the various. compnents," Brimlow told us.

There's a glossary of jargon and real estate terms, and the service that he' offers called Professional Realty Economics and Design Analysis, and Technology 'for Office Relocation,, a/k/a Predator99. "I'm getting a lot of customers that want to use this' service," says Brimlow."

There is a members' section available to those who sign an exclusive agreement with Brimlow Real Estate, which will include addresses, photos of the building and facades, floor plans and soon, a new feature will provide a guest site that will have everything but the addresses. There are exclusive listings of executive suites and buildings for sale and tlie executive suites 'that are exclusives. Soon to come is an area for owners and owners reps.

FindOfficeSpace.com is tlie gateway to Jeff Lauders as a broker. Fill out a form and he'll call you too.

Compspace.com has complimentary web space and is not about real estate. It's under construction but was supposed to be operational by June 1999. Hello, it's October! Don't bother.

OnlineBuildings.com popped up quickly, then took a few minutes - or was it seconds, - to upload a Hollywood Squares set up of photos. At least we saw Manhattan on 'a map. We're close. These 'local folks create web site solutions for real estate firms. Too bad many of the links went to Error messages and not their pages describing the services.

MarcusMillichap .com is supposed to have great listings, but alas despite a quick load,"" we 'couldn't find an office or apartment building for sale in 'New York City. Its search form needs to be filled out, and we tried to seek properties 'from $100 to $100' million, but came up with nada.

Comro.com loaded fast and also had a New York City choice among its nationwide? listings. But the Chicago-based web site only has TrizecHahn-owned buildings signed up in New York City. Local knowledge goes along way, baby.