Real-estate winners of 2008

1. Agents and asset managers of bank-owned properties

With hundreds of thousands of homes being taken by the banks this year, there was a huge opportunity for asset managers and agents to play caretaker for these properties and list them for sale. So although business was slow for most conventional agents, those who focused on REOs ("real-estate owned" or foreclosed properties) had, in many cases, their best year ever.

"We are up 17% over last year," says Mary Berry, broker-owner of Century 21's All Pro Realty in Lexington, Okla., whose firm closed more than 800 sales this year across the state.

The REO business isn't for everyone, agents say. It requires a lot of weekly paperwork, and often hundreds of thousands of dollars in upfront cash to pay utilities and other maintenance costs before banks will reimburse you, says Berry and Thomas Blanchard, owner of REO Asset Services in Las Vegas.

But these days, it's often the only game in town as buyers flock to bargains. And after years of struggling during the last real-estate boom, Blanchard says he doesn't feel bad about being on top. "When things were reversed, no one was at my door handing out $20 bills," he says.

2. Attorneys

Similarly, the attorneys handling the evictions, foreclosures, bankruptcies and other legal work stemming from the mortgage crisis had a full plate this year. Whether they were working for lenders or employed by borrowers, someone had to file the motions and make the court dates. Real-estate attorneys logged a lot of hours this year shepherding the mortgage crisis through the courts. With fees around $200 an hour, their stockings should be full.

3. First-time homebuyers

In many parts of California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, sales are starting to pick up as buyers begin to think they are near the bottom of the market.

The huge swell of foreclosure properties and short sales, coupled with fixed mortgage rates dipping under 6%, is providing some first-time homebuyers who have sat on the sideline for years their first real shot at a house.

"The typical price of what's being sold is anywhere from 22% to 35% below what the (median) home is selling for," says Steve Murray, real-estate consultant and editor of the Real Trends newsletter. "People are buying homes out there; they are just buying considerably lower-priced homes."

For those with good credit and some money to put down, credit is available, brokers say, and there is no end of choices -- something that was missing during the last real-estate boom.

4. Smaller banks that bet against risky lending

While some of the country's largest banks took a fall on risky loans, including Lehman Brothers and Countrywide Financial, a number of more conservative lenders were able to avoid this fate.

To be sure, no lender will call this a stellar year. But many that hoarded their reserves are now grabbing a larger share of the loan business, making loans that their larger counterparts won't.

Even as profits were down, mortgage originations at Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, for one, were up 35%, to $25.95 billion in the first nine months of the year -- one of the biggest jumps for any bank tracked by Inside Mortgage Finance. "We are making loans to everybody who qualifies," U.S. Bancorp President and CEO Richard Davis said in a November conference call.

5. Lending's loss-mitigation workers

Layoffs were rampant in the real-estate business this year, as home sales and loan originations plunged. But experienced workers in the loan-default or loss-mitigation side of loan servicing saw their paychecks swell with larger salaries and bonuses.

Indeed, in Dallas -- one of the hubs of this business -- billboards enticed workers with higher pay, and some industry veterans were able to job hop their way to more cash as new companies opened their doors to handle the avalanche of nonperforming loans.

"People with experience or training in default management are in high demand now," says Ted Cornwell, editor of Mortgage Servicing News.

The need for workers is so great that some companies are starting to train other types of workers to service these loans, says Steven Horne, president and founder of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a default servicer.

That's a good thing, because many people laid off on the lending side are now looking for jobs, Cornwell says

Slide show:  2008's 6 biggest losers in real estate

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