@Calus Glispie the purpose of earnest money is for you to have skin in the game.

IDEALLY I would love to find an investor who basically has been doing this and wants skin in the game but does not want to deal with the head aches of the construction or management side.

You may want to partner with someone local to make sure everyone has skin in the game.

@Joseph GarnerThe more skin in the game you have, the less likely you are to walk away from the loan if it goes south. 

I don't know any HML that doesn't want the borrower to have skin in the game.What is your contingency fund?

It has been my experience that students will flake out on signed leases but not signed leases AND skin in the game (i.e. money).

I generally don't like to go less than $10K-$20K on a downpayment to be sure the buyer has skin in the game.I ABSOLUTELY recommend you work with a Real Estate Lawyer and/or Title company on deeds, promissory notes, deed of trust etc... to make sure everything is drawn up correctly and filed correctly.

Wish I had a cleaner answer, but everyone is going to want you to have skin in the game. 

They don’t have skin in the game.

We don’t require any down payment (unless it’s your first deal and you have a deal where the rehab + purchase price + closing costs are under 70%, we may lower how much we loan you so that you have skin in the game).