You’ve been hearing – and we’ve been talking about – the deplorable state of the Las Vegas real estate market, specifically that foreclosures make up a significant percentage of all homes and prices have dropped nearly 50 percent since their 2007 highs. CNN, however, paints a bleaker picture of Las Vegas real estate, detailing how the market has changed in less the success of the early 2000s.

To give you a better idea of the excitement of Las Vegas real estate nearly 10 years ago, CNN interviewed George McCabe, a public relations executive who works with the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. McCabe told CNN:

“I bought a home in 2003, in Summerlin, for $300,000.

“I lived in it through the boom, when my neighbors would gather around the mailbox and say, ‘We all paid about three (hundred thousand dollars) and we can sell for 550 (thousand dollars). Isn’t that amazing? Wow! We’re all sitting on a gold mine.’”

If you aren’t aware, Nevada was the fastest-growing state of the past 10 years and Las Vegas the fastest-growing metropolitan area. But with less vacationing and spending during the recession, the area saw fewer jobs and lower pay.

Presently, one in four properties in Las Vegas is in a state of foreclosure, and one-quarter of all homes sold are short sales. Prices have dropped 40 percent or more, and many homes are being purchased with cash transactions or being turned into rentals. Although the average price per home in the city has risen very slightly, the foreclosures dominating the market are still in newer areas and, stripped of pipes or hardware or with broken windows and vacancy notices, may become eyesores.

Getting people to the casinos and on vacations is the most logical approach to bring more and better-paying jobs to Las Vegas, and when residents are able to make mortgage payments on time, the rates of foreclosure may start to lessen.

When is a bit of empathy a bad thing? In general, the average individual is expected to be empathetic in their personal life but possibly not on the job. A recent article on NJ.com shows that real estate agents are having to connect with their clients more, maintaining closer relationships and offering more understanding and empathy than before. Purchasing or selling a home is now fraught with emotions and fear, and an agent needs to expect such behavior from clients and know how to handle it.

In selling a home, an agent works with a client to find properties, to connect them with an MLS listing, and to eventually close a deal. Such an approach, however, has become too impersonal, and as agents and real estate professional detail in the NJ.com piece, they nearly become therapists or counselors to clients.

In creating a closer relationship with clients, the agent may need to educate better the buyer about the current state of the market, no matter how bad; help the buyer make appropriate decisions; listen and respond to clients’ needs; and become more involved with a client’s personal finances. At the same time, the agent still needs to be working to close the deal.

One agent told NJ.com:

“That takes a lot of finesse to deal with because people are on edge all the time. Realtors who are finding success in this market are savvy and have the patience and the smarts to see that people’s emotions are involved. If you don’t pay attention to that — the fact that these are huge decisions for people — then the deal will fall apart.”

On the other hand, the NJ.com briefly describes some agents as forgoing standard real estate completely and, instead, focusing on foreclosures and distressed properties, as such homes are bank-owned and involve less emotional attachment and fears from a client.

Part of the process for buying a home involves getting your finances in order. Before you seek out a lender and get pre-approval for a mortgage, knowing your history means less surprise later. Your credit history, in particular, impacts the amount you can take out for a mortgage and the interest rate. For buying a home, a lender will do a background check on a borrower and dig up such information as divorce, lawsuits, and employment history. Being in court or in the midst of a divorce or not having consistent employment history or income can cause your application to be rejected. Not being honest on your application, as well, can result in a charge or mortgage fraud.

Nevertheless, if you’re looking to buy a house in Oklahoma, lenders are becoming far more strict in the state as a result of mortgage fraud. Although mortgage fraud cases have died down significantly since more lending restrictions were put in place, a Midwest City man was recently sentenced to prison after conspiracy to commit wire fraud in two home sales in 2006 and ’07. Working with two others, the man, Derrick Reuben Smith, conspired to convince lenders to fund mortgages on these two homes for inflated prices. As a result, misrepresented loan proceeds were pocketed as commissions, and when the properties went into foreclosure, they were sold for $100,000 less than the loan amounts.

Because of this recent case, all parties involved in mortgage transactions are now being thoroughly examined, and homes in which the appraised amount is higher than market value are being put on watch lists. Lenders, in particular, now require borrowers to provide access to tax returns, through IRS Form 4605-T, in order to search for non-reimbursed business benefits written off.

Have you been planning to purchase a property in Oklahoma? Do you think that such background checks are necessary in order to combat fraud?