About to attempt my first door-knock on a pre-foreclosure house..

[Brian Erickson]

I've found a property I'm interested in which a 'notice of trustee sale' has been issued and is 'scheduled' to be auctioned in a couple months time.

It appears to not be completely repossessed by the lender and the owner of record lives at the property.  The lender on the property is Wells Fargo.

However, there is no listing agent or attorney representing the lender that is attached to the MLS listing that I can find. I also cannot find the property on Wells Fargo list of owned properties to inquire about it.

I'd love to have this property as a long term buy and hold rental and/or eventually as a primary residence.  There is substantial equity in the house.  My plan is to knock on the door and let the owner(s) know I'm interested in purchasing the house.  

Is it as simple as establishing contact, creating a relationship and drawing up a purchase agreement (obviously with title and inspection contingencies)?  Do I then need a RE agent/broker/realtor or an attorney to draw up an actual contract assuming we come to some sort of purchase agreement?

How does financing work at this point assuming I don't have a briefcase full of cash?  Use a hard money lender to pay off the existing balances on the house and then get it refinanced in my name (paying off the hard money lender after using the built in equity)?  Just take the purchase agreement, transfer title and take it to my conventional lender?

Does Wells Fargo need to be involved with this somehow?  

I know this topic has been beat to death so thanks in advance for any advice pertaining to this particular situation.