Getting a Hard Money or Private Lender

[Daniel Howard]

I've been looking for a hard money lender or a private money lender, and I will be contacting some of the places that look promising to work with. Before I do that, I had a couple things I was not sure about.

When working with a hard money lender, the typical advertisements that I have seen indicate that they will determine whether to do a deal or not based on the property, meaning, I have to find the property first, then they will determine if they fund it. That leads me to believe that I should start working with an agent and start actively searching for a good deal. My only concern (having only bought a house on a conventional loan) is that sellers and agents will be hesitant to work with me without being pre-approved in some way. Do hard money lenders typically work by offering to do a loan on a specific deal? Is there anything I will need to do since I will not know whether or not I will receive funding until the deal is presented?

Being that I'm a beginner, I was curious what everyone else's experiences were like working with a hard money lender or a private lender, and what that process is like.