Which comes first, the financing or the deal?

[Tessa Rysztak]

I have a logistical question, I cant wrap my head around how this all works.  

I keep hearing and reading, "If you find the deal, the money will come".  So how do you SECURE the deal, while looking for the money?  Do you just put in an offer contingent on financing?  Or does that only work when using mortgage financing?  In our current situation, we are looking at hard money or possibly a private investor.  When we have purchased personal residences in the past, we have always submitted a loan preapproval letter to our realtor and that was included with our offer.  But you can 't really get a preapproval for a hard money investing deal.  And I know that, in general, by the time I can find the money, the deal will be gone.  

Please help clear this up for me!