They want to know you have both you own money at risk (Skin in the game) and have the ability to save money in the first place. 

I haven't used a hard money lender yet , but I do have a contact who is a HML and when I called about a particular deal - he wanted me to have at least 30 - 40%  of the purchase price - or to be connected with a partner who has that much - point is - it wasn't exactly a situation where I was going to get away with " no money down" or something - they wanted to see "skin in the game"  too  - others may have had different experiences or an HML with different parameters of course - but in my limited experience with them,  they are going to want you to have SOME of the money - he was willing to toss out some ideas on how we could structure the deal and make it happen though and was very helpful.

This third was his equity before the market had taken it away.Technically speaking, there is no skin in the game on the borrower's part.

If I were in your shoes, my personal comfort level would be to have them be hard money lenders on your deals, or if they are adamant about owning their own properties I would help them find and purchase deals with their own money that can then be passed off to a property management company. you would be sort of an advisor with no actual skin in the game, and can give them advice about running it when issues arise.I would not want to be actually controlling the money or managing the properties, as 10% of rents would not be enough incentive to mix business with family for me

A lender would also want to see you with skin in the game so you might need to pony up 50k.

John,Most hard money lenders be wanting to know how much skin are you putting in the deal..Joe Gore

If the wholesaler isn't going to put skin in the game for the seller then the seller shouldn't give an exclusive for their property to a wholesaler trying to assign and make a fee.

These folks overpaid for the properties they have and are trying to get out with most of their skin in-tact.

SF is so crazy with all the politics and I can't wait to hear from you guys how you grow thick skin to maneuver all those.

Hi Mike,I'm not aware of any true 100% investor financing programs because lenders want you to have skin in the game.