Q: I am an officer of a local bank and have a comment on one of your recent columns. Your column related to a homeowner who had a property listed for sale and wanted to obtain financing to pay for expenses he was incurring.

The real estate agent told him that he would not be able to refinance his loan as long as the property was listed for sale.

When we lend money to homeowners, we rely on the appraiser to note that a property is listed for sale. Once we know the property is listed, the homeowner would not be eligible for a traditional mortgage.

In your column, the broker advised his client that if he listed his home for sale he might run into difficulty refinancing his home. The broker may well have been trying to keep a listing and force the owner to sell. In this situation our bank would require that the property be removed from the market, documented by a withdrawal of the listing in writing and a letter from the owners stating their reason for the withdrawal and intent to stay in the property.

I enjoy reading your weekly column.

A: Thanks for your input. As the owners of the property wrote in their letter, they had decided to withdraw the house from the market and were clear about this with their broker. I felt that the broker was trying to keep a listing, but I’m sure your comments will prove helpful to many readers.

Nov. 18, 2004.