The cowboy is dead. The lone broker feathering his own nest against competition from without--and often from within--his or her own firm is a thing of the past. Or, so say 57% of the respondents to last week's Feedback Poll. Commentator Vargas agrees, but with a footnote. The cowboy will never die, he states. But neither will he grow.

"I don't think it will ever be over, just because of the nature of our business. However, for those brokers who want to represent institutional and corporate America, those days are over. You'll find that the most productive brokers work on large teams and access the resources and services of their company, whether those services are valuation, project management, property management, financial consulting/analysis or research.

"The Fortune 500 will go through cycles and their needs, when not transactional in nature, might focus on facilities management, lease administration or project management for tenant improvements. While it's still a relationship business, when you're servicing institutional and corporate America, it's not about transaction services only, and a full-service real estate company has to provide all of those services in order to get to the transaction business.

"I don't think it's a question of being new to the business or old to the business as long as the broker understands where the business is evolving and capturing that business and understanding what the client wants, not what Joe Vargas as a broker wants."