The worst housing slump in a generation could prove to be a windfall for some investors.

At least that's what buyers of surplus building company properties are betting.

As homebuilding companies dump billions of dollars in excess properties, investors are sorting through everything from excess lots to unfinished buildings in hopes of future profits.

"Some folks may think we are a little crazy trying to do this in an environment like this," said Dallas investor Dean Macfarlan, who bought a package of resort properties this spring from Centex Corp. "But we got irreplaceable properties at a great price.

"That allows us time to allow the market to recover."

Mr. Macfarlan and his partners acquired five partially built second-home resorts from Dallas-based Centex in April. The communities are in the Texas Hill Country, on Galveston Island, in North Carolina and in New Hampshire.

Bear Lake Resort, North Carolina

"What we bought originally was about 5,900 acres, and we got about 1,900 acres of usable land," Mr. Macfarlan said. "These resorts were about 70 percent mature in terms of complete infrastructure."

Macfarlan Capital Partners has set up a new subsidiary, Terramesa Resort Properties, which will continue development, marketing and sales of the properties, which it predicts will ultimately have $1 billion in value.

"We always look for distressed or dislocated assets," Mr. Macfarlan said. "The fact that the homebuilding business was in a contraction, we looked for different opportunities.

"For us the timing was right to not only buy great real estate with solid underlying value for our investors, but to launch this new company."

And Macfarlan Capital Partners is still shopping the market as other big homebuilders liquidate properties.

"We have been doing this 20-plus years," Mr. Macfarlan said. "You have to price the risk accordingly and make sure you are buying the right assets.

"And while I'm not good at pricing the bottom, I feel if you invest over the next 12 months or so you are going to have a good chance of catching it."

South Peak Resort, New Hampshire

Other investors are trying to make similar plays.

Large sales have already been reported in California, Florida and Arizona.

"There is quite a bit of interest from opportunity funds looking for distressed properties," said Ted Wilson with Dallas-based housing analyst Residential Strategies. "But I have not seen as much in Dallas as I'm seeing in other parts of the country."

Mr. Wilson said buyers are trying to get everything from vacant tracts of land to lots ready to build on.

"Most of the builders in the Dallas-Fort Worth market that have underperforming locations are trying to sell lots," he said. "But we haven't seen a big rush to the market.

"While there are a few properties that have been jettisoned, most of them are poor quality that have a really big discount."

Still, with more than three times as many lots available in North Texas as builders are likely to need during the coming year, some bargain buys are expected.

"There is an excess supply of lots that the market is going to have to deal with over the next couple of years," Mr. Wilson said.

Dallas investor RSF Partners recently teamed up with other investors to acquire 8,500 lots and other properties.

The $161 million purchase – also from Centex – included properties in Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Texas and Virginia.

By some estimates, the purchase price was about 20 cents on the dollar compared with the real estate's original valuation.

One Dallas-area housing community on State Highway 380 in Prosper was included in the deal.

And there was even a partially built condominium project in downtown San Jose.

"We had created an initiative within our business to look around, and when this opportunity came up it was a good fit," said Chris Mahowald, managing partner of RSF Partners. "We bought 27 projects in 11 states."

RSF has now begun working through its purchases.

"We have a couple we have already sold," Mr. Mahowald said. "In a few cases we will wait it out."

And is the investor still looking for more homebuilder sales opportunities?

"Of course we are," he said. "This is what we do."