I inquired on financing for a 12plex and the lender, a local bank, offered several options, one of which was pledging one of my free and clear 4plexes as collateral for most of the down payment, and then about 5% cash from me to have some "skin in the game" (his term).I was unaware of this option, and thought that was pretty aggressive.

You learn to get thick skin though, now I have to laugh.  

If your father is willing to shell out a significant amount of capital for you to get started and your true goal is to be a real estate investor then you need to be present every minute of the process and involved in every decision along the way.Finally if you do decide to partner with someone make sure you do not put up 100% of the cash and that they have skin in the game as well, make sure you are on the title and have a clearly defined JV agreement drawn up by an experienced attorney

Aside from any investments that I would have my own skin in, I am a fan of REITs made up of holdings of well known (and public) companies.

Investors need to have some skin in the game when they invest and not rely solely on the portal to vet projects.  

Entertaining madness, mind -- but are you allowed to, say, get number one in "Shrew-skin coats?"

lots of these folks moved back to "rust belt" states where they had family and other support network (3) did they have any "skin" in the deal?.

He stated the commercial lenders want to see the buyer put some "skin" (cash) into it.

Gotta have thick skin to deal with those people...

Its not a good system at all..........I know alot of REO Real Estate agents that hate the program because they get calls on properties with people thinking the realtytrac price is the actual going rate of the home wanting to put offers 40% below list price.There's other ways to skin a cat, and i'd NEVER EVER subscribe to a program like that.