How should I approach the seller(direct mail or hire agent)?

If it’s not urgent then it can wait a day or two for one of your schedules to align which is what we have to deal with when we self manage vs hiring it out so that either you or the tenant is home

If landlord had to pay $1000 to advertise the unit or hire an agent to get it rented, the original tenant is off the hook for these costs.

I don't know what your background is @Zee Ayezain but if they don't want to sell it to you with owner financing as @John Underwood suggested I would recommend to them they hire a property manager. 

A great place to start is with the county tax assessor or to hire a valuation professional to appraise the property at the time of purchase.

I Hired the wrong contractor to finish my basement.

@Tanner Sherman makes a great point regarding REPS and whether or not one can benefit from the accelerated depreciation.To answer your question @Alex Bellini, each property, and type of property is unique and have different assets and amounts that can have accelerated depreciation into 5 year (personal property) and 15 year (land improvement) categories. 

If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general.

I had a bad incident where a contractor ran away in the middle of the construction and I have hired a new company who is working on the 2 projects now.

In most investments like these, the investor is completely removed from the asset, the management, or the operational perspective of the investment.When you invest in syndicated investment, the syndicator/sponsor will handle all aspects of the deal such as, due diligence, locating a profitable property (or properties), hiring and managing the property manager, sending out quarterly reports, implementing the business plan, handling investor relations, and so on.