It is super frustrating when you intend to invest your hard earned capital in order to provide safe and clean housing for people and in exchange you hope that the person will respect the place as it is theirs and pay you on time, but then the law is on the side of the person that has no skin in the game. 

Even banks want you to have some skin in the game.  

Here is how I think about structuring the partnership and I would like to hear your opinions:My equity partner will receive 40% of the profits for coming up with the 20-25% required for skin-in-the-game with hard money lenders.

Bottom line, this kind of seller financing is very difficult to complete and Close because banks, direct lenders, hard money lenders all want you the buyer to have skin in the game.  

You either need to find them yourself or work with a genuine wholesaler who finds great deals.If your contractor partner has no skin in the game they don't have much incentive to get things done and do them the right way.As enticing as this may sound, the downside is much greater than the upside.I tried partnering with a contractor on a house early on.  

The assessor is really the one who has the biggest slice of the pie, and no skin in the game. 

So now these investors need to trust a lead/sponsor/etc. with infinitesimally small skin in the game.Okay, that said, I’ve made more than a few assumptions to get to this point.

Offering an upfront deposit (earnest money) during the purchasing process shows you are serious about purchasing (the more deposit money you offer then the more serious you come across to the seller)...and from the sellers standpoint it protects their interests by forcing the buyer to have some skin in the game and making it less likely the potential buyer will just walk away from the deal and risk losing their deposit.

Most HML's  look at down payment as the borrower's skin in the game (usually 10 to 20%) and then finance the rehab 100%. 

There are literately dozens and dozens of ways to skin this cat.