Mortgage brokers need to make themselves visible over the next year or so as they navigate what is predicted to be a slow housing market.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted that in 2024 house prices will go down by about 5 per cent, with transactions falling by 7 per cent.
Speaking on the latest edition of the FTAdviser Podcast, director of London Money Martin Stewart said it was inevitable there would be a drop in income for brokers over the course of the next few months.
He said more established brokers could rely on a deep client bank but he recommended that brokers make themselves more visible.
Stewart said: "Thankfully this time around, something we didn't have in 2008 was social media so you do see a lot of people using that to their benefit and they are being out there and visible.
"If you can just be seen to be there, to know where people are when the time is right to move, and they will remember you and that will be a call to arms that you can then answer."
Tony Hall, head of business development at Saffron for Intermediaries, said there was "huge opportunity" in the mortgage market for brokers to diversify and "stretch beyond their comfort zone" while the mortgage market is slower.
He said: "The quest I've been on is to get us as lenders and advisers to think about what do you say and what does your website says about how you can help people.
"If your website isn't saying 'I can help you in your scenario', whether that's self-employed or contractor or whatever it might be, then those people are going along thinking 'I can't do anything' and either paying too much for a mortgage or not getting the house they really want.
"The key is to have a look at yourself and your website and what you are saying about how you can support this market in its current cycle."
Stewart agreed that brokers could help themselves by diversifying their offering.
According to the OBR, in the second quarter of 2023 housing transactions fell to their lowest level since the middle of the pandemic, as higher mortgage rates reduced affordability.
Meanwhile the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has reported that new buyer enquiries are at their lowest level since 2008.
The OBR is not expecting housing transactions to return to growth until the final quarter of 2024, returning to pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2027.
But Stewart said: "We have got to be careful that we don't start looking at this like it is gospel and it's written in tablet and it's the truth.
"The housing market is a very nuanced business and it is built upon a very simple premise of consumer confidence. If that's there, we have a busy housing market. If that disappears we have a very poor performing housing market.