"It's no longer just transactional," he says. "To maintain a relationship they have to keep clients informed on what's happening in the market and how their investments are performing against the market while also keeping them informed of new opportunities."

In support of that, Marcus & Millichap built up its market research and advisory services as well as its loan sourcing capabilities, and it continues to do so. Green says the company is now hiring additional people with consulting and high-level analytical backgrounds, increasing its financial analysis modeling capabilities and adding staff in research.

"We've had a lot of folks come to us and say 'we get you're research, know you're brokers; can you do a consulting assignment?'" Green says. "We see the consulting business growing on its own."

Nadji says the company's independent consulting and custom research and advisory divisions is designed to be integrated into the agent's services to clients instead of competing with the brokers' relationship with the client.

"If it's something typically part of what a broker provides, there likely will be no charge," he says. "But when a client has a specific need--a buy-sell decision, a market decision, a portfolio repositioning--where a custom study is warranted, there might be a charge and their might not be, depending on the relationship."

As far as what this means to the investor, Green says, "Instead of going to one expert for transaction services, to another source for market information and yet another source for help with strategy formation, our clients, whether they are private or institutional investors, can now benefit from the integration of all these services as well as capital markets expertise through a single source."