@Silvia BaierYou need find potential partners or investors if you can not fund the down payment, or if your balance sheet is not strong enough.Living in the property would be huge!

We seem to have found a happy balance.

As an investor, I've been looking for that area on the North Coast and in conclusion needs more time to be developed ( so there is no guarantee you will have a good ROI due the location )You don't have the same appreciation to get equity and the ROI is not the same there is a reason why is cheaper than other areas. also, the cheapest areas are not the best for us as investors I am not saying that has to be expensive but has to be in balance do you have diligence in analyzing some deals I recommend Santos Domingo for short/long term rentals Punta Cana and Bayahibe too for now 

What is the loan to value (LTV) or mortgage balance compared to the assumed value? 

Your value is 395k and your loan at 90% to that value is $355,500 - what your current balance remaining is of 325k = $30,500 that is how much your line of equity might be minus closing cost. let me know if you still have questions. 

It is a balancing act, but your future self will thank you.PS maybe try to seperate your equity investment from your cash flow investment: there are other ways to build a couple hundred $ in passive income and then you can focus your REI on long term goals.

How much of the past due balance would they forgive?

Or is it better to wait out the seasoning period with your loan balance (I used a HELOC so no hard money lenders or balloon payments) and just refi out in 6 months?

Rockaway Beach has made consistent appearances on many top beach STR investment lists due to a balanced price to ROI ratio (and majestic destination) with a historically a low barrier to an STR permit.

Quote from @Robin Simon: Its definitely dependent on a lot of variables, personal situation/risk tolerance, etc.But high-level, I would say that there can certainly be a balance - sometimes people forget that when using hard money or any sort of financing, for some reason you need to "MAX out leverage" - i.e. do a 100% financing for a flip or a max cash-out refinance etc..However, most hard money lenders would be totally willing to do a lower leverage loan (and would probably prefer it) such as 50% or 60% LTC instead of the usual max amount.