Lots of good books to check out on financial metrics.]Some of my favorites:1) http://www.amazon.com/Investing-Duplexes-Triplexes...2) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071603271/ref=pd...I'm sure there are other books too.I spent 10+ years in commercial and residential lending, and can tell you, there are many ways to skin a cat.  

Any and all advice is welcomed, I'm thicker skinned.

Any and all advice is welcomed, I'm thicker skinned.

That can help convey confidence in a deal when someone knows you have a lot of skin in the game.

It just does not work that way.We also have sellers that do what we call in the business "skin jobs".

As Bill described there are several ways to skin the cat.

As a sponsor, I do not have any "skin in the game", I have not been licensed for a year yet, but eager to jump in.  

Most banks will want a personal guarantee and skin in each deal and reserves.

Throw some skin in the game and pull the trigger.

You need to have a solid understanding of underwriting, assemble the right team (PM, CRE attorney, brokers, bankers, etc), be good at capital raising (which will be no easy task since you haven't done this before), have a strong personal financial statement to qualify for the loan, and finally, have enough of your own capital invested (at least in the first few deals) to convince others you have skin in the game.