Agent Struggles - Friends Using Other Agents - Advice?

[Jesse Smith]

Good morning all.  The last few months have been rather frustrating, and I'm hoping to get some advice from others who may have had similar experiences.  

I got my RE Agent License almost a year ago.  Very quickly, I assisted two buyers (one friend and one former co-worker) to buy homes.  Both purchases went smoothly, and feedback was great.  

I continued to talk with my friends and acquaintances about real estate (I'm also an investor).  I told them that I had gotten my license and that I would be happy to help if they decided to buy or sell (keeping in mind not to be pushy).  I also shared this a couple times on social media.  Many of my friends are at the point in life where they are planning to buy their first home or upgrade their current home. 

Over the past 6-8 months, at least 6 of my friends have bought and/or sold their homes.  NONE of them have asked me to be their agent, despite having a number of discussions about the process.  They've been happy to ask my advice on negotiation, inspections, appraisals, pricing, staging, etc.  I always end up helping them out, of course with no compensation.  This has become incredibly frustrating.  

I'm good at what I do, and I've personally purchased 8 properties myself.  For some reason, this hasn't translated into my friends trusting me to handle their transactions.  Two have even told me (unprompted) that they wanted to "keep the friendship separate from such a big decision."  They both ended up using someone they didn't even know at all and asking me questions when things got confusing.

Have any of you had similar experiences?  If I can't even get my friends to trust me as an agent, how can I expect to have others do it?  Any advice would be appreciated.  

[Bob Okenwa]

@Jesse Smith

I get that people want to keep business separate from personal relationships, but I would politely decline to give advice and instruct them to direct all queries to their agent. I don't get involved with other agents' clients regardless of my personal relationship with them out of professional courtesy for that agent. If they want real estate advice from you, then they can hire you as an agent.