I am a retired property manager with zero skin in this game, so I'm not trying to sell you anything.  

@Mallory GuerreroThe worst monster wearing the skin of a human being that I ever met ran a private language school in a foreign country.

I’ll preface with I’m new to buy and hold investing and have yet to have any skin in the game, still learning and getting things in line.

Assume a dumb *** landlord might say "you are denied because of the colour of your skin".

Save yourself some time and aggravation and continue business as usual until they have skin in the game.

., will not serve you well as far as you losing money in the real world.It's not about tough love, but about someone honestly caring about you losing money, who has absolutely zero skin in the game.

Even with a hard money lender, they will require you to have some skin in the game. 

I discussed it with the owner and our decision was that we wanted to only rent to individuals who had skin in the game.

Ha -  We had our discussions and I respect people if they want to pay all cash - but like the old country cliche goes - there's more than one way to skin a cat - and as a common person who wants bigger and better things - good luck saving up $1 million or more for a bigger deal in your lifetime if you want those big deals before you reach retirement age.   

@Mike Lambert It's absolutely my own personal preference, and I acknowledge that many people may feel differently.I am answering his question with zero skin in the game.