I have purchased the following books:ABCs of Buying Rental Property The ABCs of Property Management The ABCs of Real Estate Investing The Advanced Guide to Real Estate InvestingThe Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money DownWhat order do you recommend reading them in?

If approaching the seller directly, how do you recommend I go about it? 

@Brandon Stelling I would recommend reaching out and connecting with various commercial brokers who specialize in each of these spaces.

Issue is, in these "bad" deals the government comes after the lease option seller for predatory lending practices and the eviction / foreclosure process is a nightmare.

I'd absolutely focus on quality over quantity here.My recommendation is to be diligent and narrow down your research of where based off why, let go of the regret & resentment and put some actionable forces into getting your first REI and doing what it takes to get to a 2nd without any compromise.

Any recommendations?

There is an incredible amount of points to consider when weighing the options on something like this and honestly, I don't recommend it to very many people at all ....even seasoned tradesmen and investors.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

The whole "he's open-sourcing everything for the world" thing sounds nice, but in practice, a lot of those ideas haven’t exactly panned out the way he claimed they would. 

However, I’d love to hear insights from the community:1.Are there specific lenders or institutions you’d recommend that cater to international investors?