If you want to survive as a real-estate agent in this hardscrabble housing market, you’d be well-advised to find a niche. Ashley Klein got lucky: A niche found her.

Klein is hardworking and knowledgeable, and those qualities have helped her survive the housing crisis. But there’s another reason for her success: She’s willing and well-equipped to work with gay homebuyers.

Klein, 28, estimates that about 50 percent of her clients are gay, lesbian or transgendered. Some come to her because she understands the financial and legal obstacles gay homebuyers face. Others have sought her out after a negative encounter with a prior agent.

“I’ve had a number of clients come to me after being mistreated by another local Realtor,” Klein said.

Sarah Henderson and Jennifer Jones discovered Klein at www.gayrealestateindianapolis.com after cutting ties with an agent who was uncomfortable with their sexual orientation. “It got to the point where he would refuse to show us a house in person,” Henderson said. “He would just give us the pass codes to go into the houses alone.”

Eventually, the Realtor wrote Henderson an e-mail, explaining “that he felt uncomfortable in the situation, because he didn’t think it was right,” Henderson said. The relationship ended there, and, for a while, so did Henderson and Jones’ search for a house.

“It discouraged us,” Henderson said. “We put it off for three or four months, and then we found Ashley.”

According to Debbie Fairfax of the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors, all Realtors are bound by a code of ethics that obligates them to provide equal service to all homebuyers. Fairfax said Henderson could have filed a complaint with the board. If the Realtor was found to be in violation of the code of ethics, he could have been sanctioned.

Fairfax declined to say whether MIBOR has dealt with complaints like Henderson’s from gay homebuyers. “Our complaint process is confidential,” she said.

As for Klein, she doesn’t waste too much time worrying about bigotry among Realtors. After all, their prejudice is her profit. Furthermore, she doesn’t expect the problem to go away soon.

But, she does expect business to boom. The forecast for 2009, she said, is better than ever. “This is a great time to be buying,” she said. “There are some great deals out there.”