They are taking a chance because you have no track record, so they will want skin in the game (cash down). 

Nobody wants them, and you don't want to be one of the many that learn on their own skin & pocket why!

As long as they are in first position, AND you have skin in the game (seller financing doesn't count) then you have a deal.

If you continue to allow the president of paying late you may have difficulty or add complications  eventing later if that becomes necessary since YOU allow the tenant to continually break the rules.

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.

Difficulty Level? 

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?