Is it really a favour or taking advantage?

[MariaE]

That's like saying she knew that the FSBO would fail.  Let me tell you, when you're selling a house, you aren't always thinking of Plan B.
 
And the OP could have been part of Plan B.

But the 'friend' was thinking of a plan B... and the OP wasn't part of it.

[Audrey Quest]

That's like saying she knew that the FSBO would fail.  Let me tell you, when you're selling a house, you aren't always thinking of Plan B.
 
And the OP could have been part of Plan B.

But the 'friend' was thinking of a plan B... and the OP wasn't part of it.

Well, she was asked about it.  Still, just because she thinks she is going to use a particular realtor (and that it turned out that she did) its still not a fait accompli at the point that she has the OP over to her house.
 
I wouldn't have been particularly happy for someone to assume that my FSBO would not work.  Perhaps the friend wanted the OP to give her advice because she thought the OP would not try to sell herself as a listing agent.
 
My point is that the OP went in with the expectation that she might get a listing in spite of the fact that she was told it was for a FSBO.   Many FSBOs end up getting listed with an agent and so I can see her thinking that maybe she could land the listing.

But, it is also true that many sellers go through more than one realtor.  So, it was still possible that she could have at some point gotten the listing.

The opportunity was there.

Every contact with a possible client is an opportunity.  There is always competition, some that you know about, most that you don't.  That's why is never a good idea to get hung up on things like this.  You have to just keep putting your foot in the door--sometimes it will pan out and you get a nice payday and other times it doesn't.

[MariaE]

We clearly disagree completely..

[DavidH]

I think the point is that the opportunity was not there and the "friend" knew that when she asked for the advice.  I agree with the point on the FSBO, she was clear about that from the beginning.  On the other hand, she hid that fact that she was loyal to Agent B when she asked for advice initially. Had she said, I will try to market my house, and if that fails, I will list with Agent A to whom I am loyal, but would you come over, give me a price point, and tell me how to stage my house for nothing, then it would have been fine. 

By saying oh no, we're loyal to person A, it's saying there was never an opportunity.  She didn't say, I like A's marketing plan better, I think she knows the area well or anything like that. 

[bopper]

While its insensitive to talk about hiring another agent right in front of you, I don't know that anything she did was rude.

You could have taken it as a challenge and tried to convince her to hire you instead.  Real Esate is not just about selling houses, its about selling yourself to clients.

And I don't know where she would have gotten the idea that agents won't come and do an appraisal.  I interviewed 3 agents who all told me what they thought the home was worth, what changes I needed to make and what they would do to market it.

And I will still free to try and sell it myself if that is what I had wanted to do.  As it was, it was the second realtor we hired who actually sold it.

I think this was not taking advantage of you because you had an opportunity to get a client, you just didnt see it as such.  Even if you dont get the listing, you have the opportunity to bring buyers to see it and in a negotiation you have an upper hand having talked to the buyer before it ever went on the market.

This is all about business.

In the future, you should have a standard way of professionally handling any friend who asks for advice that will turn them into an actual client.  "Of course I will come in and help you!"  "Oh, you have a realtor in mind?  Well, won't you give me the chance to show you what I can do to sell your home?"  "If that doesnt work out, give me a call and we can talk about selling your home."

They might actually hire or even recommend you to a friend.

This seems reasonable if their mind seems open to possibly hiring you. Then it might be worth investing some time. But in the OP's case, it seemed clear that there was 0% chance of payoff.

[johelenc1]

OP - as a Broker myself, I would have been furious if someone did that to me.  And I'm pretty easy going.  I think the best thing you could have done in the situation (if you didn't want to leave), was to give a price range and let them figure out where to price it.  If they pushed, you could have said that a range was the best you could offer without doing a full CMA and more research.  If she asked for that, which would have been incredibly nervy, you could have responded that you only do those for potential clients.

I do think you probably could have tried to get a full listing appointment opportunity, "well, I understand you are loyal to Agent A.  However, it's always good to have a second opinion.  I would love to set up a full listing appointment where I can present my marketing strategy and provide a full CMA for you which would include a price analysis."    I don't actually think it would have made a difference though.  She sounds like quite a character.