I accept complete responsibility for allowing this to happen and not nipping it in the bud.

But that is like in any international destination at the moment because of Covid and the Riviera Maya (including Cancun) is probably one of the least affected areas as it is one of those that accept visitors and on of the very few that accepts American visitors.

I am worried that after the offer gets accepted, the appraisal value might come in significantly lower than the contract price.I understand that discrepancies happen, and I’m not concerned about a small gap (10-20k), however, if the appraised value would come in significantly lower (50-100k, or more), then I would simply not be able to afford this property (given my then lower down payment, and worse mortgage interest rates).I am wondering if anyone has any experience with what happens in such cases?

1 You start an LLC.  2 Fund the LLC with the money you need for earnest money.3 The offer is made by the LLC, with you as the representative member of the LLC4 - If the offer is accepted, you sell the LLC for your assignment fee plus the earnest money you put up5 - The LLC closes on the property with the new owner of the LLC as the new rep6 - You get your assignment fee from the sale of the LLC7 - You are no longer affiliated with the LLC8 - There is no paper trail to your assignment fee that is visible to the seller. 

We close next month and will immediately start accepting applications and screening tenants. 

What lenders will do however is accept previous tax history for future income once you own the property for a year or two so if you wanted to refinance later you could do that. 

It will certainly require extra paper work and the country where the income comes from also needs to be one of the accepted ones (which is most). 

@Shion Queen I'd narrow it down a bit more before visiting, and do that, you can't go everywhere but you should be able to get down to 1 or 2 acceptable markets that you visit and learn about in depth.

They don’t have to accept the first applicant that comes along.

In this case, you should be able to sell directly without listing in the MLS and soliciting buyers, and issuing Tenant rights notices (if applicable in your state) etc which is a huge benefit in DC assuming that the tenant is paying market price or at least a price that is acceptable to you.As suggested above, you should consult with your broker and be sure you’re following their rules on selling your own property.