Make an offer before finding a hard money or PM lender?

[Trevor Smith]

I’ve found a few properties that might be good deals if the list price can be negotiated down a little (~10%). I’d like to put an offer in but will need to find a hard money or private money lender because all of my money is tied up in two other properties. My question is, do you submit offers on potential deals and make them contingent on financing and then go find the money after the offer is accepted...hoping you can do that quickly enough? Or do you find a lender first, explain what you’re trying to do, and then start submitting offers?  I don’t want to waste a hard money lenders time, but if an offer isn’t accepted it might take awhile to find another property where you can get an accepted offer. Thoughts? Thanks!