Could use some paint and carpet, but otherwise the house has all high end stuff.Never used a hard money lender before and I don't have a lot of skin to put in the game.Thoughts?

At this point it is either get involved in something like this, get some skin in the game, and learn from my experience, or just save my money away for the next five years until I'm at a point where I feel more comfortable ratcheting back from work, and try to become a part time buy and hold investor on my own.Either way I plan on getting involved in managing my own real estate down the road, but thought this may be a viable way to get started and learn in the mean time.What do you guys think?

Other than increasing my return a bit higher than this 6-7%; is there a way or ways I can minimize my risk i.e. taking a higher position (1st), taking collateral, offering in draws in conjunction with the build, ensuring there is plenty of equity along the way, and ensuring that the builder has at least 20-25% skin in the investment with me?

Skin in the game, eg a very large down payment.At your age, the best chance would be a private loan from the people you know you best. 

A hard money lender may get you the funds needed for renovation, however they will want you to have substantial "skin" in the game.

Make sure they have skin in the game right from the start (equity and/or points). 

They were impressed I think.We were asking for 100% funding (no skin in the game) unless we have to.  

Buying these units based on the nice TK or worse yet the marketing agent has no skin in the game is in my mind counter intuitive.

This is especially true for investors who you haven't worked with previously that are likely to back out if they don't have skin in the game

Since you don't have experience and the 10% skin in the game that most hard money lenders require, you can't rehab this yourself.