Hard money and a line of credit are my top choices as I have more than 50% of this budget saved, but need to fill this monetary gap while leaving enough of my own cash in reserves.

Would this be considered a good choice?

25 years to end mortgage payments is a long time to wait though...But ultimately if there is no way to turn this into a positive monthly cash rental at this point, then letting it go is probably the easiest choice.

Well, if you really want to be in Montreal then you may not have much choice. 

Land TrustAssignment of Beneficial InterestWhen I was doing short sales, the procedure was to gather all the documents, then call the lien holder's loss mitigation department for the loan info and the fax number to fax an offer to, then fax the offer over.  

If your employer has a roth 401k option with good choices, you could use this if interested in contributing after tax. 

Thanks for the advice @Nicholas Lohr...that seems like such beneficial piece of advice.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $42.8 million in housing counseling grants to help approximately one million Americans make more informed housing choices, keep their current homes, or receive assistance to help them avoid foreclosure."

I'm not saying ignore DNC, you have to make that choice yourself per business needs.   

With M2M he wouldn't be breaking any lease terms and he had the choice to move.