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.

The great minds in the mortgage business continue to make it simpler for everyday folks to deal with financing.

Fannie Mae, for example, has made it easier to finance a new home while converting your existing residence into an income-generating rental. And if you recently -- very recently -- paid cash for a property, Fannie also will allow you to finance the deal after the fact, as long as you do so within 180 days.

Meanwhile, B2R Finance, a company that provides buy-to-rent funding for investors, is now in the market with single-property loans for mom-and-pop landlords. And in the super-high-priced San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Federal Credit Union is offering nothing-down loans of up to $2 million.

Fannie Mae doesn't make loans; rather, it buys loans from primary lenders. And when the secondary market giant signals it's changed its requirements, the main street marketplace tends to follow.

In 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, Fannie Mae changed its rules to make it much more difficult to use phantom income from "renting" the current house to qualify for a loan on a new place. This was because people would tell their lenders they intended to rent out their old house when, in fact, they had no such desire. Then they'd default on the old loan as soon as the new loan was secured -- a practice called a "strategic default."

"So what?" reasoned these defaulters. "Since I now have a new loan on a more affordable house, I'll let the lender foreclose on the old one."

Now, reflecting current market conditions, Fannie has quietly gone back to its precrisis rules, according to Jude Landis, vice president of single-family credit policy at the mortgage giant.

In other words, lenders can once again rely on such standard requirements as income and cash-reserve documentation. They no longer have to confirm the borrower's equity position in the proposed rental with expensive broker price opinions or appraisals, paid for by the borrower.

Also, the rule that borrowers with less than 30 percent equity must have six months' worth of mortgage payments in cash reserves has been waived. So has the requirement that a tenant's security deposit be confirmed.

Fannie Mae's delayed financing program for cash buyers isn't new. But most people don't know about it, says Chris Carter, a loan officer with the Paramount Residential Mortgage Group in Naples, Florida.

There are plenty of reasons to pay cash for a house. Perhaps most importantly, it makes for a much "cleaner" deal with no contingency for financing. Sellers tend to see cash offers as golden, and are often willing to give a little on the price to reel them in.

While an excellent bargaining ploy for buyers, an all-cash sale tends to tie up a lot of their money -- money that could be put into a higher-yielding, more liquid investment.

Typically, cash buyers have to wait a minimum of six months to refinance the property, and only then can they release some of their money. With delayed finance loans, though, you can get more of your money back just a few days after you close.

To qualify, the original purchase must have been an arm's-length transaction: Deals between related parties are not eligible. Also, the settlement sheet must show that no financing whatsoever was used. Funds for the purchase must be fully documented and sourced.

If you meet these and other requirements, delayed financing can be used for primary residences, second homes or investment properties for up to 70 percent of the value. Better yet, the loan amount can include closing costs and prepaid fees, as long as the maximum loan-to-value ratio is maintained.

With delayed financing, investors can out-bargain regular buyers, or fund their transactions using the new Foundation Loan from B2R.

B2R and other companies that offer buy-to-rent financing typically deal with people who have rental portfolios of 10 or more properties. But the Foundation Loan is for small-time, beginning investors who buy just one property -- or, at least, one property at a time.

The product, which is available online through B2R's Dwell Finance Investor division (dwellfinance.com), can be used to acquire or refinance properties. Loan amounts can be as little as $60,000 or as much as $750,000, and rates are fixed for up to 30 years.

B2R CEO Jason Hogg says investors are "craving" single-property loans like this: He says the company took in 119 applications over Halloween weekend, before it even began actively marketing the product.

Finally, there's the POPPYLOAN from San Francisco Federal, a 60-year-old credit union with some 34,000 members serving the Bay Area. With POPPY, which stands for the "Proud Ownership Purchase Program for You," members can borrow up to $2 million without taking a dime out of their own pockets. There isn't even a requirement for mortgage insurance.

The loan is a 5-5 adjustable-rate mortgage, meaning that it will adjust every five years, and only by a maximum of 2 percentage points each time (up to six points over the life of the loan).

The mortgage is a response to the abnormally high rents in the Bay Area. Many there are paying more to their landlords then they would on mortgage payments, but because they can't put together a down payment, they've been stuck in a rental black hole. POPPY may offer a way out.