My sellers accepted a great offer almost immediately. The buyers were obtaining an FHA loan, and everything appeared to be on track. The closing date was July 3.

Except there was one tiny problem: July 3 wasn’t really July 3. The title companies were closed for the holiday, the county recorder’s office was closed and lenders were wrapping things up early. In reality, everyone knew that if we were going to close “on July 3,” we had to be completely finished by July 2.

Everyone knows that, right?

As the days ticked by, I noticed something missing: no appraiser. Normally, somewhere along the way, an appraiser calls to schedule access to the property. A week before closing, I still hadn’t heard from anyone. Four days before settlement, my phone finally rang.

“There’s a rush order on this FHA appraisal. Can I come today?”

I wanted to tell him that he could have come two weeks ago, but I held my tongue.

Either way, the appraisal was completed. My sellers signed their closing documents so they could leave town for a long-planned holiday camping trip, and we were feeling pretty good about our chances of closing on time.

Then, late in the evening before everything was supposed to wrap up, the news arrived. The appraisal had come back with required repairs. Not because the house had foundation issues, the furnace had failed or the roof was leaking. Nope.

Three detached yard structures had peeling paint: a small decorative picket fence and two wooden arbors. None of these structures touched the house. None affected its structural integrity. None prevented someone from living comfortably on the property. But because this was an FHA loan, peeling paint on exterior structures became a condition that had to be corrected before the loan could receive final approval.

Welcome to FHA.

Before anyone accuses me of picking on FHA or VA loans, let me be clear: I actually like these loan programs. They help thousands of buyers become homeowners every year who otherwise might not qualify for conventional financing. Many of my clients have purchased homes using FHA or VA financing, and most of those transactions close without a hitch.

What makes them different is the appraisal.

A conventional appraiser is mostly trying to answer one question: Is the house worth what the buyer is paying for it? FHA and VA appraisers have a second assignment. They must also determine whether the property meets the government’s minimum property standards. That means they aren’t just determining value. They’re also looking for health, safety and habitability concerns that could affect the buyer or the lender.

Some of those repairs make perfect sense, such as missing handrails on stairs, exposed electrical wiring, broken windows, roof leaks or missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Others, however, are a little harder to connect to the safety or integrity of the home. I once even had an appraiser call out a missing towel rack.

These are repairs that must be completed before closing or the funds for the purchase will not be available. That’s why timing is everything. If the appraisal happens early, everyone has time to deal with surprises. If it happens during the final week before closing, a relatively minor repair can suddenly become the only thing standing between everyone and the finish line.

While I certainly wasn’t thrilled with the news, especially since this 11th-hour scramble could have been avoided with an earlier appraisal, assigning blame doesn’t get the transaction closed.

Action does.

So I rounded up a couple of neighbor boys who aren’t afraid of a paintbrush and some manual labor and we headed to the property. By the end of the day, one weathered picket fence had been dismantled, one aging arbor had met its maker, another had received what can only be described as the fastest makeover in Northern Utah and an entire truckload of rotted wood and debris had been hauled to the dump.

We were all a disastrous, stinky, sweaty mess, but the FHA-required repairs were complete. I took photos and forwarded them to the lender so he could order the appraiser back out for a final verification.

Unfortunately, the calendar wasn’t nearly as cooperative as we were.

By now it was July 3, and everyone was closed — except the Realtors. We always seem to miss the memo that holidays are supposed to be days off. Even if the appraiser had sprinted over that afternoon wearing a cape and approved the repairs on the spot, which I assure you he did not, there was no way to legally close the transaction until everyone returned to work after the holiday weekend.

That’s the unfortunate part about delays in real estate. One missed deadline often creates a domino effect. A repair that takes four hours to complete can easily cost four days on the calendar if it happens at exactly the wrong time.

FHA and VA required repairs aren’t necessarily a reason to avoid these loan programs. Most of the required fixes are relatively minor.

The real problem isn’t peeling paint.

It’s peeling paint that nobody discovers until the final week before closing.