If you have equity in your rentals put them in your personal name and pledge the equity so you will have good skin in the deal.Joe Gore

If LiDAR is also stitched to the imagery, then the accuracy is greatly improved and 3D models can be generated with the images used as the "skin" for the model.  

Like you said you can only read and research so much before you have to get some skin in the game.

. :)Also, I have found in my experience, is that people want to see that you have some skin in the game.  

Again this is an opinion, but he/she has no skin in the game, and they price houses based on opinion for a living!

My guess is that they want the owner to have some skin in the game.

From their perspective it means you're not willing to put any skin in the game and the risk is all on them.

Without skin in the game, why would an agent work hard to close a deal where he/she is not getting paid.  

My other thought is that if I rent somewhere for now, and then use that money as “skin in the game” for the hard money lender I’m preapproved with, to flip a property, I’ll have more cash to invest in either a duplex or vacation rental.

I think you need to find a deal with more meat and take extra caution when using OPM.You should also have some kind of skin in the game, even if it is just $5k in your proposed partner scenario.