If I have a little skin in the game, does that make a difference?

To go the private/hard money route, keep in mind those lenders will likely require you to bring some amount of the purchase price to the closing table so you'll have skin in the game.

I chose individuals as they had more skin in the game than some 'company' only managing their PnL, not mine :)

In the short term I know cali has been better but if you are only looking short term I think you may be sorry,  I survived the big drop when I lived in Pasadena California by the skin of my teeth.  

I would just have to reduce the term of the loan, which would require her to either move out or start paying rent sooner.Likewise, I could put 5k or 10k down so I have some skin in it, but again, that would shorten the term of the loan and require her to move out or start paying rent sooner.

There are many ways to skin a cat as they say.

I'm fairly new to this...except I have owned and rented a few mobile homes several years ago but this is my first attempt at making a viable income with reasonable skin in the game.

Do they require a "skin in the game" or can lend 100% purchase + rehab?

Long story short, there is more than 1 way to skin a cat; how about contracting/purchasing a property in an LLC and than selling the LLC?

We would call that 60% LTV, 80% CLTV, buyer has 20% skin in the game.In the 96.5% LTV FHA world, where you want to go to 100% CLTV with a seller carried note secured by the property in question, not going to happen unless there's lots of fraud afoot.