Local Realtor Joe Opatik recently was hired as a department manager at Home Depot, one sign of the downturn in the real estate business.

Opatik is one of a number of Pahrump people with real estate licenses who are looking at other sources of income.

His wife, Norma Jean Opatik, who is the head of the Greater Las Vegas Board of Realtors Pahrump chapter, said, "He's doing that because everything's slow, until it comes back. That's what we're hoping, it will come back." Opatik likes to look at the bright side, amid a flood of bad news. Though things were quiet at Action Realty the day of our interview, Opatik said more inquiries over property are starting to trickle in over the telephone and from walk-in traffic.

"We've seen a lot of movement lately. We've got five or six (properties) in escrow now, which is more than what we've had. Now all we have to do is get them to close. That's the other trick," Opatik said.

Statistics from the Nevada Department of Business and Industry Real Estate Division show there were 268 active real estate salespeople doing business in Pahrump in June 2008 and 90 inactive sellers, doing what people in the industry call "putting your license on ice."

That is down slightly from 282 real estate sellers in June 2007 and 107 inactive sellers.

Statewide the department showed there were 25,986 active and 7,518 inactive sellers in June 2008, compared to 28,763 active and 7,418 inactive in 2007.

"Some of them still have their license but they took on another job until the market picks up. They can still hang their license at a real estate company but they won't really be active because they're working now," Norma Jean Opatik said.

Some of those that got out of the real estate business were those that thought they could make a lot of money and didn't, she said.

"Everybody just thinks we make all this money and it's usually expended before you get it. You don't even feel the commission generally, especially in a market like this," she said.

Down the street on a section of Highway 160 that resembles "Realty Row" Donna LaDuke, owner of LaDuke Team Realty, said her sales force is smaller than it used to be due to the changing times.

"I had one agent leave recently because she got offered a salary at another real estate office and a salary I can't give her. We don't do that. We're on commission. If you don't make it, I can't pay it and I had another one put her license on ice. You can do that for a year and decide what you want to do," LaDuke said.

"I have five agents today that are working agents, and I had nine agents six months ago. So it is what happens in this business. You either are really working at it or you're not in the business. You cannot sit at the desk and wait for it to happen. You have to go get it," she said.

LaDuke said she's closed sales recently to workers from Death Valley National Park who want to live in Nevada. She also made sales to racers at Spring Mountain Motorsports who want a home in Pahrump.

Shelly Bolen, a broker with Available Properties, said a number of employees at her office have other jobs to fill in the slack.

Broker Mike Selbach has a business on the side, Deep Clean Carpet Service. Real estate agent Veronica Summers just began working at Desert View Regional Medical Center.

"Everybody is still an agent that ever was one. But a lot of us have got different jobs," Bolen said. "A lot of people have second jobs so they can afford to stay in real estate during the down times."

The slowdown in the real estate business has had a ripple effect in the Pahrump economy, Bolen said. She formerly had a seven-page advertising spread in "At Home Pahrump" that's been reduced to four pages.

"You have to cut corners whenever you can. We don't have near as many people for office help as we used to," Bolen said. "I'm the weekend staff."

Chicago Title Co. recently closed its Pahrump office.

"What I've had so much of lately is people that can't sell their homes who want to rent them out. But when they come talk to me it's doom and gloom. I can't rent them out for what they owe against them," Bolen said.

Cindy McCall, a broker with Win Realty, recently closed her storefront office on West Street to work out of her home.

"Well, with the slow economy and what's selling, there's not a whole lot selling. I think it was easier to do at this point because I don't think the market is going to turn around for the next year, year and a half," McCall said. "The only things selling right now are the bank repos."

A lot of her business is through listings and can be done over the computer and the telephone, she said. "We're just cutting back on expenses and we will probably service our clients better this way too. We usually do have a lot of listings," McCall said.

It's a far cry from the heyday of 2004 when many people bought property in Pahrump sight unseen.

"We had them waiting in our lobby, waiting for an agent to become available to write up an offer, almost like being an order taker. It wasn't even like being in real estate," Opatik said of those busy times.

Nowadays, people interested in buying real estate will find many brokers and agents with their undivided attention. Opatik joked that they would leave a birthday party for their grandmother to make a sale.

"It's a great time to get into the business because we're not busy, so you can learn the business before you write your first contract," she said.

Van Dishong said he still has a supply of a dozen real estate brokers at Re/Max Pros on Winery Road. Dishong said he has five properties himself in escrow.

He was optimistic the mortgage reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday will even the playing field on all the foreclosed properties depressing the market.

The bill, which passed the House by a 272-152 vote, will go to the Senate in days and is expected to become law since President Bush dropped his opposition.

The bill will allow the Federal Housing Administration to back $300 billion in new loans so an estimated 400,000 strapped homeowners can avoid foreclosure. Dishong said those homeowners would be able to call their banks and refinance the outstanding mortgages at 6.25 percent.

Opatik said all the negative publicity has led to much of the problem.

"The more negative you get about this market, the longer it's going to stay down. It's a mind set," Opatik said. "The more depressed you get, the more depressed you become, the downward spiral, and you have to look at the glass as half-full rather than half empty or you're just going to stay down."

It's also a good buyer's market, real estate professionals say. Opatik said during the height of the boom in 2004, it wasn't possible to buy a site-built home in Pahrump for under $300,000. Some homes are now being discounted as much as $100,000, she said.