Those are all critical things to know so the BP community can assist you with increasing your response rate.I've tried multiple methods with direct mail and I found that yellow letters get the best response.

The main reason for this is because I would be occupying the building myself and would want to choose the treatment method and company that would guarantee services. 

You can adapt other methods to verify the contractor's professionalism.Rule #2 Know exactly what you want.Good contractors love details.

Please share your methods and/or any tips you can think of for getting a more accurate estimated value.

I don't do CASH payment for anyone,, If I have to do that,  I go to bank withdraw enough cash to cover the amount, I write a check to labor contractor and have him endorse the check and hand it back to me, I give him the cash right then back on the spot,,, this is for the type of guy I might hire just for day labor... type work.

Questions from BP Podcast Episode 6:1) Which is the most advisable / preffered method of money lending?

Per the BRRRR method, ideally the SDIRA gets paid back and I own the property (rather than the IRA owning the property).  

If you want to spend a few extra minutes you can save even more on items doing the following:For Lowe's I've gotten up to 34% off: Sign up for Post office mail forwarding for 10% off coupon, shop discount gift card sites for above 10% off gift cards (the best I've gotten was 18% off), buy the gift cards through topcashback website (1-4% off), purchase gift cards with citi double cash credit card for an extra 2% off.I bought a Neato vacuum that retails for $500 for $364 (shipped to the house) using the same method above except substituting the 10% off mail coupon from the post office with bed bath and beyonds typical 20% off. 

As of now, the only option I know of is to sell the funds, withdraw the money, and then pay taxes on all of that money.

Maybe it was a foreclosure.Brandon Turner wrote a post about BRRRR investing, which is basically this method.