I love that you have skin in the game and are taking steps to be thoughtful in your responsibility as a builder to provide more functionality and outdoor space for future tenants. 

As @Taylor L. mentioned lenders often want to see the GP have some skin in the game besides loan guarantees. 

So anyway he is stationed in MS  and was in contract to buy a home in Memphis and for the donation I give personal consultations for basically whatever they are interested in as long as its something I am confident that I know and understand.One thing I know and understand is mid west deep south rust belt cash flow rentals.. after having funded well over 2k of them for other clients and owning 350 of them personally.That all said he sends me the property and what he is paying and the glowing descriptions.. ( this was not a turn key provider)  So just a simple google search ( he had not seen it) so google street view.. 

So what I was thinking (say the numbers make sense) that we find a private/hard money lender, put a small down payment so that we have skin in the game too not just the lender, increase the interest rate so it’s beneficial to the lender, rehab the duplex, and increase rental price, then refinance in 1 year having a background of tenants to show the bank, and to pay back the lender so it’s a short term investment.What do you guys think?

Made it to settlement by the skin of my teeth (debt to income ratio was excellent) after being underwritten twice.

Focus on meeting other passive investors who actually put skin in the game. - Did it meet expectations?

Cindy,One way to skin this cat: have the tenants contract with a moving company (or maybe even the contractor) to include moving the contents into storage and back into the room.

With a LO you get a tenant with skin in the game ($9k option consideration in my case)  and a commission-free sale with no vacancy. 

I’m a first time investor looking to get some skin in the game, I would like to have some pointers or suggestions on good locations to invest in.

Meanwhile while Airbnb guests pack out my calendar and leave glowing five star reviews.