I was not getting any solid signal about rental occupancy rate either and from a property appreciation point of view, I felt there was hardly any skin left in the game for me. 

Do you have any skin in the game. 

He could just as easily insult your weight, height, skin color, accent, or a dozen other features.

Most 2nd position lenders will want the investor to have skin in the game (invest their own money) AND be paid a double-digit return.When you purchase property, you ALWAYS need to have reserves, but in this scenario, you really need to have reserves since you will need to make 2 large debt payments every month.

Commercial require you to have at least 20% skin in the game correct?

For instance, if I manage to raise private capital to fund a deal and purchase a successful rental property, how would this actually benefit ME when I have no skin in the game (i.e. money of my own invested)?

Others may have a different opinion, but outside of a seller carry back up to 90% CLTV (still require some skin in the game, unless you go true hard money) 2nd liens on real estate for purchase transactions in the manner you're seeking are very difficult to get a loan against, whether it be a secondary market lender (private equity fund, balance sheet lender, family office, etc), and usually are seeking larger transcations ($1-3MM +) in this space, and are still capped at a max 75-80% CLTV (still wanting skin in the game).# 4 usually requires more explanation as its newer to the market (DM me if interested in discussing these options further), but all 1-4 appear to be potential options for you based on the limited details. 

The recent crazy with multiple bids and appraisal guarantees has exacerbated the problem.

.: @K S. here is Nike:Return on Assets   9.89%Return on Equity 36.38% To be fair if I could use Chinese slave labor, turn a blind eye to forced sterilization, and organ harvesting via the Uygur population, then turnaround to exploit, fund and exacerbate the racial divide in the US for marketing purposes and my bottomline, I could certainly juice my ROE.  

@Henry HsiehTo provide a different perspective:I am NOT a property manager so I have no skin in this game  But I can tell you, as a GP involved with over 1100 units and $140M AUM, good property management is a big key to successful investment.