Tax implication of selling stocks to buy cash.

[Dennis Melo]

Preface - I'm new to real estate investment. I recently made an offer on an REO. My offer was a cash buy so I was asked to provide PoFs (little over 200k). My offer was accepted and had to sell a good amount of my investments in Stocks. Almost three weeks later, the deal fell through as there were numerous damages to the property and code violations etc. and it would have cost me a fortune to fix it. Now I'm stuck with no property and a big capital gains tax bill to pay. The 200k are sitting on my bank account, are there any options for me to minimize my tax bill? Also, as I begin to read more on cash vs loan to buy real estate, I'm not entirely sure anymore that a cash buy is the clear option. Should I put the money back in stock, bonds, etc.? Should I keep it there and keep searching for a cash buy? Your thoughts are much appreciated.