I would love to hear any advice or suggestions on how to proceed...We just closed on a place in Puerto Vallarta.

Once we sell our family home, my half of the proceeds should be about $300k.

I appreciate your recommendation to proceed with caution, as investing without proper research indeed carries inherent risks.Thank you and best of luck, as well!

That's why I am hesitant about installing security into the property since it'll be an added expense to upkeep.Any advice is much appreciated on how to proceed!

For example incase iIf you identify an asset in the market that already has a realtor representation on both the buyer and seller side, do you reserve the right to proceed with the deal independently, or do you have to bring in your realtor? 

The title company might also know about any legal avenues to proceed with releasing funds.

To put it nicely, I would proceed with extreme extreme caution, if I were in your shoes. 

Once you know it's worth buying then you can decide how you will finance it, whether with a 20% down out of pocket or using the cash out refinance proceeds.

Using a strategy like a 1031 exchange can help defer this tax if you reinvest the proceeds into another property.

Assuming the bank abandoned the property and stopped paying the taxes you can proceed with filing a quiet title action to get the lien released if they haven't already released it.