There is a potential great deal I am looking at right now to convert a mixed-purpose building into a 4 unit building.

@Anna GreerWelcome to BP and congratulations on jumping into the forums.The City of South Bend commissioned a study in 2013 named "An Analysis of Residential Market Potential" for  Downtown South Bend.

Networking with experienced investors here would be a good way of finding potential mentors: https://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

You find a suitable t/b (potentially the person you spoke of) and assign the contract(s) to them.

Your clients would need to go take a look, and write up an offer by a certain deadline potentially.

I can't speak to everything you wrote about, but if I were you, the first thing I'd think about is your potential to expand.

I am ready to start cold calling, as well as handwriting and mailing lawyers as I gather potential seller info, but I don't know how to start the conversation. 

The sole reason for the post was to simply start to build a list of potential buyers.I was contacted by a lady who has good income but she cannot get a loan because it's 1099 income.

Numbers definitely don't work even if I were to potentially refinance out of it after a year.

A lot of this you'll begin to understand after watching/listening to podcasts or reading books/blogs/these forums.When you hear something that could lead to a potential deal, follow up on it immediately.My last deal came from a dinner with a few other couples.