Contracts and Desperate Sellers

Hey all, I’m new to the site and a friend of mine and I are looking into
real estate investing. What I’m trying to is as follows:
Find desperate sellers or people in pre-foreclosure/foreclosure,
put them under contract, and sell property to an investor.

  1. Finding the sellers - Public records? where do i go exactly for that?
    What do i say to them? Just ask for people who are in pre-foreclosure? what city office is that usually?
    Place Ads? Approach FSBO’s?

  2. Once i have found sellers who are willing to participate with
    what i offer, i put them under a contract. Where can i find an example of a good one? What should be included in this?

  3. when selling to an investor, what is necessary to know?