There is more than one way to skin a cat.  

I tend to look in order: 1) Smart money invested alongside me, 2) Top sponsor with significant GP skin in the game, 3) Platform with a pari passu interest, 4) Prefunding.Would I rather see the sponsor list directly?  

How to use your $70k cash.Basically just think of this as your "down payment" ... and for a $100k - $150k project (purchase price + rehab), you probably won't even need the whole $70k down.Generally, hard money lenders will be looking for you to have a 60% - 80% LTV, or in other words: have at least 20% of your own funds as "skin in the game."2.

Consider connecting with a mentor to help you get some skin in the game.

No way you get 360 month amortization on this deal at 5.25% with zero skin in the game for a dinged credit borrower.

You will have difficulty keeping non student tenants and will have to deal with possibly ongoing complaints if you do not inform all applicants in advance that there are student renters.

The difficulty is they take longer to get better information.

The intermediaries that are likely to sustain viable long-term business models will create alignment via co-investment and have experienced underwriting teams that consist of individuals with experience as principals and skin in the game for projects presented for co-investment.  

It think that guy ran into some personal difficulties that had nothing to do with real estate (bad life choices) and had to leave the market.  

A borrower has to have some skin in the game somehow.Mark is a lender so you might learn something off of a call with him.