how does hard money lending really work?

[Carla Harris]

I am very new to REI and want to know more about HML. I've heard 2 schools of thought - investors agree to lend on the ARV and not the credit/investment of the assigner, buyer, etc and from researching other areas, there seems to be a need for good credit scores and coming to the table with a portion of the investment.

Since I do not have money to currently invest and not the highest score, my plan is to wholesale first while I'm building up a reserve. Please give me the skinny on how HML works.

thanks.