Q. We were preapproved for a loan and proceeded to make an offer on a home. The offer was accepted, and a closing date was set for April 2. Last week, my boss told me that my job will be eliminated in May. Now we want to cancel our purchase because we cannot afford the payments on my wife’s salary alone. The problem is that the sellers won’t agree to cancel the deal unless they can keep our $6,000 good-faith deposit. We’ll need that money to help us get by until I can find another job. What can we do?

A. I’m sorry to hear about your upcoming job loss, and I hope you’ll get back on solid financial footing soon.

Immediately call the lender who agreed to issue the loan to explain the situation. Although the mortgage was preapproved, the bank still has the right to rescind financing approval for any number of reasons — including the recent or pending loss of a job that will make it more difficult for the borrower to make the payments. The bank should be happy to send you a formal rescission letter, in part because it doesn’t want to issue a loan on a property that could quickly wind up in foreclosure.

Assuming you included a standard financing contingency in your purchase offer, as most buyers do, the bank’s rescission letter should allow you to nix the proposed purchase and have the sellers return your good-faith deposit.

Send a copy of the letter to the sellers, their agent and the closing attorney or escrow officer who has been overseeing the proposed sale. Also send them all a letter of your own that states you are canceling the sale because you cannot get financing and demands your deposit be returned.

If the sellers still balk at returning the money, you might consider offering to let them keep a small portion of the cash to compensate them for their inconvenience and reimburse them for any transaction-related expenses. The alternative would be to file a lawsuit, which likely would result in unnecessary legal fees for everyone involved and also prevent the sellers from putting the home back on the market until the dispute is resolved.

Q. I heard that some real estate sales company is going to start opening offices inside supermarkets. Is this true?

A. Yes, it’s true. Brokerage giant RE/MAX of New England recently announced it has struck a novel deal to put small sales offices in 17 supermarkets owned by Stop & Shop, one of the Northeast’s largest grocery chains.

Many housing analysts say it’s a harbinger of things to come, when grocery shoppers across the nation will soon be able to peruse pictures and prices of local homes for sale while taking a break from checking prices on cereal and squeezing the Charmin.

The strategy might work. Companies ranging from Starbucks coffee to Jamba Juice already have discovered the extra profit they can make by renting a small corner of a highly trafficked supermarket, where consumers visit two or three times a week. Banks have noticed this too, which explains why they have already created thousands of “micro branches” in markets and drugstores where customers can cash a check, make a deposit or even make a mortgage.

RE/MAX officials said they don’t expect their new deal with grocer Stop & Shop to send sales surging overnight. Instead, Jay Hummer, company executive, said the new mini offices “will allow people to get to know … our agents and form a relationship, so when it’s time to buy or sell a home, they will come back to us.”

Q. Last year I signed up for a program offered by my bank that lets me pay my monthly mortgage and other bills over the Internet instead of writing out checks and mailing them. It’s great because it saves me time, postage and the like. But lately, I’ve been wondering: Will the fact that I pay these bills online instead of mailing in traditional checks hurt my credit score?

A. No, paying bills online won’t hurt your credit score. Lenders and credit bureaus don’t care how you pay your bills, as long as the payments are made in a timely manner. Credit reports don’t even notate the way payments are made, so you’ll neither improve nor hurt your credit score if you pay bills online, with personal checks or even cash.

Send questions to David Myers, P.O. Box 2960, Culver City, Calif. 90231-2960, and we’ll try to respond in a future column.

More from columnist David W. Myers

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