How to Approach Private Money Lenders

[Joshua Piepmeier]

Hey everyone,

New to Bigger Pockets and real estate investing here. I don't have much money right now for a down-payment but am trying to think in terms of "How can I?" instead of "I can't". 

My question is basically this: How do I approach someone and ask for money? A good friend of mine has a mentor/ future father-in-law who's very well off and is apparently very interested in real estate. The father-in-law loves talking business and investments with my friend and has told him that "real estate is the way to go". However, he's retired and isn't pursuing investments as aggressively these days. 

My thought is I that if he helped with the down-payment or financing, I could provide the energy, knowledge, and drive to invest in a BRRR multifamily home. He could get better returns than the stock market, etc and it would be a win-win. Would it be appropriate for me to approach him and propose this? How would I go about doing so? I want to make sure this is mutually beneficial and that I don't come across as shady.

Thanks everyone! 

Josh