The higher your equity gets on a single property, the more you are losing money. 

Quote from @Joel Oh: Your business must make money day 1.It is so much more difficult to fix the model that is not making money than starting a new business that makes money day 1. 

The guy on Youtube that boasts about buying properties with no money out of his pocket and using other people's money from his "community" to pay for closing and carrying costs, said in a video in June that he had 10 Due on Sale called in AZ alone from Jan 2024 to May 2024.

Leverage your way to wealth with as little of your own money into it.

My advice would be, if you truly want to learn the business, lease it up, refinance, pull some money out, and go on to the next one.

If you wanted to fund a portion of the down payment would you suggest a hard money lender, personal loan, etc.?

Keep wasting your time then and looking at MLS deals ;) You can make more money and actually get deals going direct to the seller instead of this.

You can get a HELOC if there is equity in the property most likely, which there should be since you own it in cash, but you will just be decreasing your pay out and then may end up short in repair money, depending on how much it is worth.

Biden has promised money for 6 mos, but he won't be President in 8 days.

Take a bit of that money and invest in learning - go to meetups and the many events that take place related to investing in the city - some for free and some paid.