I have been spending the last few months saving and finishing up my degree (graduated with 0 debt) .

I do have a good job, but the quality of life that comes along with it is not great, so I would love to transition to having my money work for me, rather than trading my time for money at some point.I have invested a bit in some debt deals on crowdfunding platforms, and recently invested in a HML fund. 

The costs are Exactly the same as buying any other property.....all debts and liens need to be paid off at closing along with your normal closing costs.  

I am looking into hard money loans but have no experience here with them and with 4 other loans in my portfolio, dont think I would qualify for a conventional loan due to my income/debt ratio.

Work on yourself and then take care of the debt. 

I may be worth running lean (as long as you have adequate reserves) for a year or so if there's room to grow rents by $50-100/unit/month.The real issue here is that you're paying full retail and using the HELOC as long-term debt.

My initial thoughts are to use the $30k to knock down the debt to $10k as the much higher interest I pay on the debt means I’m losing money each month, and start again saving from scratch.

Fix your credit and change your bad habbits before you take on another dime of debt.

Another tactic is to eliminate the deferred balance over a four-year period at 25% per year but only if the borrower maintains and on-time payment schedule.

We were looking at 2 potential properties and last week we eliminated 1 of them and put in an offer on the other.