Domain names and Google's curse!

Mmm, this not going to be as easy as I thought! My task is to get a real estate agent's site onto the first page of Google. I'll advise him to use bangkok property after I looked up the suggestion tool for the best keywords. I have taken a long look at the top five on Google. Why does the top site only have 415 backlinks? Maybe they're quality links? Anyway, whatever, but all five, except one, has bangkok property keywords in the domain name! Strange, as anyone can buy a keyword domain name to trick Google. My client is a corporate. How can they use a keyword as their website name? Does this make any sense to anyone? How do SEMs possibly compete in this market?