The moving truck is full, the kids are already in the car, and you are waiting not-so-patiently to sign the mound of closing documents for the mortgage on your new home. Then, bam: The settlement agent tells you the lender isn't going to get the papers delivered on time.

The closing has to be delayed.

Now you're stuck paying not only for the moving van, but also for storing your household goods somewhere. Worse, you've already given back your apartment to your landlord, or closed on your old house, so you have to find somewhere to live until you can close on the new place.

Even worse yet, since you won't meet the deadline to close on the house you're buying, the seller may get antsy. So antsy, in fact, that he may declare your deal null and void and sell the place to someone else.

All of these scenarios are possible these days, because closings are taking longer then they used to. The reason: Many lenders are still having trouble coming to grips with new federal "Know Before You Owe" settlement rules that went into effect in October.

Lenders and their vendors had almost two years to figure out how to combine the old requirements from the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA) into the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure, or TRID, forms. But they're still having trouble.

Before TRID, according to the National Association of Realtors, it took roughly 30 days to close. But in November, it took an average of 40.5 days. And according to Ellie Mae's Origination Insight Report, December closings took even longer than that -- up to 50 days.

The key to closing now is the new Closing Disclosure (CD), the statement of final loan terms and costs, which must be given to borrowers at least three days prior to settlement. Lenders cannot change any of those costs once the CD has been issued; otherwise, they are responsible for the differences.

"That's why lenders either wait until the last possible moment to issue the CD, or they have a strict list of items that must be completed in the loan process prior to issuing the CD," says Daniel Jacobs of Michigan Mutual.

So, how do you avoid a TRID-related delay in your closing? Here are a few ideas from the experts:

-- Rate lock. Ask your lender for a longer rate lock, or guarantee of a certain rate pledged on your new loan. That way, if the closing is delayed, you won't lose whatever interest rate you were promised.

Prior to TRID, you could lock in your rate with the lender and close the next day. Now, the rate must be locked in prior to the CD being issued. So lock it in early, advises Jacobs.

Pay extra for a longer rate lock if you have to. Typically, lenders will guarantee their rates for 30 days, but they will lock it in for a longer period -- at a price. It may well be worth paying a few hundred extra dollars for the peace of mind in knowing that however long it takes for the paperwork to be done correctly, you won't lose the house.

-- Act quickly. Schedule all inspections and surveys right away. That way, if there is an issue -- say, the home inspection finds a major problem with the furnace, or the surveyor discovers an unknown right-of-way through the property -- it can be resolved. Moreover, invoices or paid receipts for these services must be accounted for on the CD.

Similarly, invoices or quotes for homeowners' association dues and insurance premiums also must be accounted for on the CD, so take care of these early, too. And if the lender vows to contact the HOA or your insurance agent on your behalf, ask for confirmation.

-- Slow down. Schedule the sale of your current house for at least a week after you are set to close on the new place. Similarly, don't give up your apartment too early. Give yourself plenty of time. It may cost an extra month's house payment or rent, but if there is a delay in closing on your new place, your family won't be out on the street.

"If you are selling one home and moving into another, give yourself more time for issues arising on both ends of the transaction," says Becky Walzak, a longtime mortgage business consultant.

-- Tell all. Don't hold anything back. "Full disclosure, always," advises Brian Koss of the Mortgage Network. Koss says borrowers need to know that getting a mortgage "will be akin to an IRS audit," so they should tell lenders everything. "Because these days, the lender will find it anyway," he says.

If your lender discovers new information toward the end of the transaction, the closing will be postponed. "And until it can be proven otherwise, the new information will be presumed to be an issue," says Koss.

-- Double up. Attach two years' worth of W2s, two months' worth of pay stubs and two months of bank statements to your loan application -- and keep copies for yourself. If you wait until the lender asks for these and other documents, it will slow the underwriting process.

-- Nothing big. Don't make any major transactions -- taking out a car loan, for example, or charging a room full of furniture -- until after closing. Ditto for taking a job at a new company.

"Any movement of money through bank accounts or credit cards, or job changes, can cause your loan to be postponed or denied," says Koss. This holds true even if you've already been approved, because all loans are really only "conditionally approved" until just a few days before closing. The lender can recheck your financial picture at any time.

"You must keep your profile exactly as presented until after closing," explains Koss. "This is one of the biggest delays in lending, and it causes mad scrambles to keep deals on track."

When Dave and Judy Daniel decided to move from St. Cloud, Minnesota to retirement community Sun City Festival in Buckeye, Arizona, they knew exactly what they wanted: the model home. But it wasn't for sale, and it wasn't on the golf course like they preferred.

No problem, said salesman Ken Plonski. We'll replicate it wherever you like.

"There were many things we loved in the model," says Dave Daniel. "It was much easier than starting from scratch."

The Daniels are not alone in wanting an exact replica of a builder's sample house. While reproducing model homes is far from a trend, it is happening more than would-be homebuyers might suspect.

"It's not something that happens regularly, but it does happen," says Plonski.

Builders have always sold their model homes, but generally at a project's end when they are no longer needed. Sometime they'll sell their models at a project's outset to an investor, who will lease the homes back to the builder for as long as they're needed.

In other instances, a buyer might be allowed to sign a contract early on to buy the show-house down the road. But he'll have to wait, perhaps two or three years, to take occupancy, and he'll have to pay whatever price is in effect at that time.

Recreating models is another situation entirely. Here, builders are asked to reproduce an upgrade-laden model -- sometimes right down to the furniture and silverware.

There are any number of reasons people want a turnkey, ready-to-go home. Typically, they are well-to-do buyers who don't have the inclination to obsess over layout options, color schemes and the like. In other instances, buyers simply fall in love with what they see.

"We saw the model and it was beautiful," says Dave Daniel. "We were able to do all our planning from Minnesota because we knew what our new house in Arizona would look like."

Builders are probably more likely to be asked to reproduce a model in retirement and resort communities, where people are either pulling up roots and starting over in a new location or want a turnkey property that they don't have to bother furnishing.

But the practice isn't unheard-of in the big city.

"It happens a fair amount, and it's happening more lately," reports Jeff Benach, a co-principal of Lexington Homes, one of the Chicago area's largest builders.

Homebuyer Jon Andes says he could have lived with any of the three models he saw at Lexington Hills in suburban Palatine, Illinois. But he chose the smallest because it could be built on a lot that backed up to a preserve. He asked the builder to build a copy of it, complete with all the extras.

"My wife has a tough time visualizing, so it was much easier for us to go this route," says Andes. "The last home we bought, the builder changed the orientation so the bedrooms where on the other side of the house from the model, and that threw her into a frenzy. It was not what she wanted."

In southwest Florida, it's "very normal" for builders to reproduce their models for buyers -- right down to the decorative fruit on the dining table and wine bottles in the wine cooler, according to James Nulf, a partner in the Seagate Development Group in Fort Myers.

"It's already done," Nulf said, "so they don't have to go through the process."

There's no question that models help bring to life what is, for most people, a hard-to-comprehend floor plan. That's why builders invest heavily in model home parks, with sample houses decorated to the hilt. The homes are appealing, especially to people who can fork over millions to buy one.

At the Quail West community in Naples, Florida, base prices of furnished models start at just over $1 million. Options can add anything from $267,000 to $486,000 to the base. And if the buyer wants the furnishings, she can expect to tack on another $175,00 to $283,000.

To some buyers, it's well worth it. While most buyers want to "put their own mark" on their homes, says Jill Bresnahan, a Quail West sales agent, some "don't want to go through the agony of making selections and then second-guessing themselves, and then not knowing what it's going to look like when it all comes together."

Not all builders will be so accommodating. And others tell buyers to work with their decorator if they want the furniture package.

A few words of warning, if you decide to go that route: The model furniture "looks nice," cautions Chicago builder Benach, "but it may not be of the highest quality." Also, many pieces may be reused from previous projects, so they could be showing their age, even if you can't readily see the wear during your tour.

The booming multifamily mortgage market has risen to new heights, passing the lofty $1 trillion mark. But while that may mean boom times for apartment lenders, increasing demand may not translate into good times for renters.

Apartment mortgages outstanding hit $1.02 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2015, according to the Mortgage Bankers of America.

That was up a hefty 2 percent in one quarter, rising $19.3 billion from the end of the second quarter. And it was the highest level since MBA started tracking commercial and multifamily mortgages in 2007.

It's no secret what's fueling the increasing demand for apartments: the decreasing demand for homeownership. "With the U.S. homeownership rate at its lowest since 1967, the U.S. renter population is the largest it has ever been, and now stands at 43 million households," according to a report by Apartment List, a rental search engine.

The laws of supply and demand mandate increased prices for in-demand products and services, and the rental markets are no different. But affording higher rents has rarely been more difficult than it is today: As of 2014, more than half of the nation's renters -- 52 percent -- were considered "cost-burdened."

The housing market defines a "cost-burdened renter" as someone who spends at least 30 percent of his or her income on housing. At 30 percent to 50 percent, renters are deemed "moderately burdened." If they pay more than 50 percent, they are counted as "severely burdened."

According to Apartment List, the rise in demand for apartments, plus the very modest growth in renters' incomes in recent years, is causing the pinch.

"The share of cost-burdened renters has risen in many cities and states across the nation," the website says. "According to the census data used in our analysis, the share of cost-burdened renters is 40 percent or higher in all but two states as of 2013."

The worst rental markets correspond to the nation's most expensive housing markets: both coasts, plus Hawaii. "Florida, Hawaii and California have the worst scores: Each of them have cost-burden rates of 57 percent or higher. Thirty percent of renters there spend more than half their income on rent," Apartment List reported.

Anyone looking for an inexpensive rental market should try North and South Dakota. According to the report, the Dakotas are the only two states in the country where less than 40 percent of renters were cost-burdened.

If relocating to either of those two states doesn't work for you, the question then becomes: How do renters find the scarce bargains out there? One method is to look for landlord subsidy programs, in which the subsidies are passed on to the renters to make their rents more affordable.

The state of New Jersey has one such program. The subsidies in the Garden State came in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which caused massive damage in many areas. The state earmarked $18 million of Sandy disaster money to a Landlord Incentive Program. According to the program's website, it is "designed to make it financially possible for rental property owners of all sizes to provide safe, suitable and affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents who have found it difficult to locate housing after Superstorm Sandy."

The program provides landlords with a steady revenue stream in order to "encourage them to rent their vacant apartments to families of limited financial means with the guarantee of receiving fair market value rent. Rental property owners will receive roughly the difference between 30 percent of the tenant's monthly income and federal fair market rents each month."

It's sort of a local version of the federal Section 8 program -- Washington's main method for helping low-income families find decent housing. Section 8 is another way people can search for more affordable rentals.

Under Section 8, participants are free to choose any type of housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments. Funds for the program come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but are administered locally by public housing agencies.

-- Freelance writer Mark Fogarty contributed to this column.