San Diego is expensive with the average sold price for houses around $400k and from looking at some hard money lender websites  some of them have mentioned that they want to see that I have "skin-in-the-game" and have a down payment requirement.

I do NOT recommend long distance Unless you find an exceptional partner/manager/someone with integrity or who has skin in the game.

You need to have skin in the game just like any other deal.

How much "skin" will you put in the game?

anyone with that kind of money would probably not work with a first time investor on a deal this big. you would have to fork over at least half the downpayment to show you have skin in the game. how much cash can you contribute right now?

Doubt you've got skin in the game in LA or Calif. 

Everyone's situation is different and there are more than one way to skin cat, but I have significantly more than 10 loans and basically don't do it the way anyone here is talking about.

I like learning about syndicating on bigger deals, as well, but I'm thinking maybe I should get some skin in the game first.I've been looking at deals in my area and in my state and I keep coming back to a deal that's just a few miles from me (decent area) that I found on craigslist.I noticed the listing disappeared quickly.  

I also try and keep in mind that I want these people to actually be able to purchase the property (if they want to), and so I try and get them to have at least enough skin in the game at the end that they can use that as a down payment.

I'd ultimately like to work with and meet with people that would like to act on a deal together (i'm also willing to put skin in the game).