Newbie to RE Investing

[Account Closed]

Hi All, I’m new to the real estate investing world and have been educating myself a lot on the logistics of how this all works. I have one question regarding getting funding: Starting out, I plan to do fix and flips of SFH in my area (Elmont, NY). I plan to use hard money to fund a portion of the purchase. What I’m finding a hard time understanding is that whenever I find a good deal, do I need to have proof of funding lined up before I make an offer? Or do I find the potential deal, run the comps and prepare what I plan to offer, then approach the HML with the proposal, get a letter of intent from the HML (if they like the deal), and then put in my offer to the seller? Does it work like getting a pre-approval through a conventional lender before putting in an offer for a property? Or do I just disclose to the selling agent that I’m an investor and here’s my offer - if it’s accepted, I need X number of days to get secure the funding? Any help would be great! Thanks.