Be careful about trying to absorb costs as you would be surprised how people suddenly don't "care" as much when they have no skin in the game! 

Anyway, the guy with her looks like a skin head that just got out of prison.  

You have to have thick skin and be ready to hear "NO" a lot! 

...and to answer a few specific questions, while it's entirely possible to work with a commercial lender to have this viewed as a portfolio, they're still going to require skin in the game from you, plus (typically) some proven track record of profitably managing a real estate investment business. 

I've also made a commitment to myself to come out of my shell and shed my introverted skin, so I'll be attending my first real estate investment group meeting on Wednesday.I'm nervous, but my desire to create a passive income stream so that I can quit my job burns stronger than my fear.

More often than not there is something important than money such as (quick or long close, more ernest money showing skin in the game, loan type, broker, etc).

So really wasn't any skin off my nose if they did or didn't clean the house before moving in,

Setting up a strong team is the most important thing for new investors to help you get some skin in the game.

Start with a small multi flip using hard money (or a combination of my money and hard money) and then trade up to bigger multis (1031 or carry over the note) until I reach the kind of cash that the bank or lender would consider as enough skin in the game to lend me the rest.4.

@Henri MeliThis is my story: Much like yourself I used to take calls at the office and that has irritated my manager, so I just returned them on the lunch-break or after work.