Properties are expensive here and the HML want me to have 20% skin in the game.

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. 

You may be able to work out some other ways to do this deal with less money, but banks aren't real keen on investment loans without skin in the game. 

Looking forward to getting skin in the game and eventually transitioning from my full time job as a deputy sheriff to living on my investment income.

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.

For lack of a better term,It's really assigning a contract for a fee...The reason why every novice newbie/wannabe wholesaler (besides getting pumped by a "guru") wants to do this and why they ultimately do get a bad wrap is because the majority that get started don't have money  to get into it (or must have), don't know what they are doing  and literally have no skin in the game but tie up a homeowner's house for some time with the homeowner who more than likely has no clue that he or she is dealing with someone who is merely trying to assign the contract...and at the end waste everyone's time when there is no end buyer since they couldn't find one or just buy it themselves......which is probably most of the time since majority lack the proper knowledge or experience to do it right. 

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

if so, that's a lot of skin in the game. 

With no relationship, no track record and no experience, they are going to want you to have significant skin in the game to create shared risk.2.