Is Fannie Mae Closing The Doors on Investors?

As you remember back in November 2009 Fannie Mae launched its "First Look initiative" Program. This program has gone thru a recent adjustment to facilitate the sale of REOs to owner-occupants and entities using public funds, such as local housing and community development agencies. According to Fannie Mae says these buyers bring permanency and stability to tenuous markets where swollen inventories of foreclosures have taken their toll.

One of the main changes is that First Look properties will now be listed on HomePath.com rather than MLS. This program has been designed to put owner-occupants in homes. This is an honorable idea, now what I wonder is that if they are trying to exclude or reduce the number of properties available to investors. For example, for the first 15 days of "Fannie Mae REO listings", only offers from owner-occupants and public entities will be considered. What I wonder is the reason to exclude the rest of the public (investors) from the bidding process. I understand their fears of the past mistakes. However, having the government now control the real estate market may be going a little too far. I agree with making corrections and legislations to prevent the past mistakes. Like history has shown us, everyone is better served by letting the forces of the market work on its own. Something that we should consider is that if an investor is willing and capable of making a higher offer, then Fannie Mae and the taxpayers would benefit by recouping more of its losses. What is next, will a governmental agency will exclude certain batch of stocks from the market for 15 days and only a certain group of buyers will be able to acquire them?