Fannie Mae First Look - Okay to remove listing before 20 days?

[James York]

A friend told me about a piece of real estate in foreclosure, that was a Fannie Mae property listed as part of the First Look program, on Zillow and an auction site.  I called Fannie Mae, the listing agent, and the auction website about it.  FM took down my info, so did the auction site, then that evening i got an email from the auction site saying the property was no longer listed.  It was removed from Zillow also.  Called FM the next day, they referred me to the realtor, who said he was just doing what FM told him, and that it would be re-listed as a general property, open to all buyers, later.

It was only 8 days into the First Look listing.  Is it strange that they took it down immediately upon getting an inquiry?  I haven’t found any guidelines saying FM must wait 20 days once listed, but it still seems strange.  The property could’ve been a smoking deal, from what i could see.  Is it a known occurrence for realtors to be working deals on the side, or is that even possible he could’ve canceled the listing?

Sorry for the length of the post, and thanks for any help!

 JC