Regardless, you will need to have some "skin in the game" with all lenders.

Hard money is more expensive and still requires significant skin in the game.

So the only value proposition you bring is you found the deal and will marshal it but you have no skin in the game other than time.. that is the hurdle you need to over come.Personally since I am the person your looking for I would not do this for someone who is knew.So to that end I would be looking for a equity partner FIRST.. get some deals and experience then you can go fishing for gap.. you can show them your done deals and your success's. and you will have some capital to put in even if its nominal.so this Gap theme is just soup de jour for I have no money and trying to do no money down 100% leveraged deals.

However, neither guy didn't want to do the deal insisting that I need "skin" in the game. 

Most banks (if they even do construction loans), will require a 700+ credit score and 20% down on the hard costs of land acquisition + construction.Here is what I'm thinking:1) Get a pre-approval for my customers for a traditional loan2) Get some sort of equity down from the customer (cash or land) so they've got skin in the game3) Do an appraisal on the after construction value of their home4) Assuming the numbers work out and we're covered in the event that the original customer can't close, build their home for them with us fronting the money5) Sell them the home at completionI have two questions for you all:1) Do you think a hard money or private lender would be interested in this, assuming I'm offering 12% interest on their money for the 3-4 month build time2) Do you see any legal problems with taking money from the customer and then selling the property to someone else if the customer screws their credit up during the build and is unable to close?

It has been my experience that if someone is up to something they will try and do it with no skin in the game.  

"skin in the game").$19k isn't a TON of money.

The small amount of "skin in the game" required by the borrower can usually be made from multiple sources (2nd position gap lenders/private lenders, seller carry back, cross collateral, personal capital, etc).

I just  don't buy "how to skin the seller".Just saying, you might be able to  climb this hill, but few others will likely be able to regardless of what class they take or who gives short instruction, it's much more complicated than meets the eye.

However, I will put some skin in the game.