There's more than one way to skin a cat!

Most traditional hard money lenders are going to want you to have skin in the game.  

The property must survive an appraisal that is identical to FHA (price and condition)No down payment is needed.Just be aware that a sharp agent may tell his seller to decline your offer because you have almost zero skin in the game.  

There's no maintenance and repairs and you get better tenants who have skin in the game.

Though he would be able to finance it all himself, he has wisely chosen to have me secure my first deal on my own in terms of financing so he knows I have skin in the game (he's been burned in the past helping folks).

It is purelly asset based, rates improve the more skin (money) you put in the deal.

If the tenant has to be evicted within 12 months they will pay for the eviction expenses, which basically wipes out more than their income from the unit in a year This way they have skin in the game when it comes to finding a good tenant.

There are many ways to skin this cat-- the trick as a borrower is to show the lender the value they need to see so they don't artificially depress your values. 

Being a female,  my best advice is to make sure you have really thick skin (nothing is ever personal in business),  some people can be very supportive, but some people can be real a$$holes and just be ready for it.  

They want you to have skin in the game and make is to that if they had to take back the property they could sell it easily.