A down payment is skin in the game.

If the tenant has to be evicted within 12 months they will pay for the eviction expenses, which basically wipes out more than their income from the unit in a year This way they have skin in the game when it comes to finding a good tenant.

Hard money lenders want to see the borrower have skin in the game.

@Charles Burkeen thanks for that - been having a blast at our local REIA learning about 10 ways to skin a cat.

Banks like you to have some skin in the game if the house is a rental. 

To Collateralize  a property is putting it up as skin int he game for the bank, usually the bank get's first position if you default.

-You always want to work with partners that have "skin" in the game. 

When I got started I feared putting out signs for my marketing, talking to sellers, spending money that I might not get back, worrying about people not wanting to sell me their home because of my skin color, not having the cash on hand to buy it, not pulling up to the house in a luxury car, etc, etc, etc...All these things are just inside your head.

There are many ways to skin a cat.

Navigating the financing nuances is where I'll need the greatest help, since there are 110 ways to skin the real estate purchasing cat, and none of them are totally clear to me (yet).