Hi , I am buying a one family home, and would like to rebuild it from scratch, home is around 700k , rebuilding might cost 400k , I have enough 20% down payment and my dti ratios allows me at 800k conventional,Whats the best should I should do for this home?

Maybe you can shed some light on cost savings as it relates to, retaining 1 part of the original structure (in the event of a teardown-rebuild scenario), where be it, a wall or a prescribed portion of the original structure is retained, per the request of the city/county? 

The policy amount ended up being the sale price so we don't have any money left to rebuild; all the insurance money was used up during the cleanup phase after the fire.This brings me to a question.

My thought was also that the $100K to gut and rebuild sounds low.

During that incident it appears as though the roof pushed through the flooring and broke the joists/base holding up the floor (wooden frame house).This damage which is structural requires for the entire frame to be rebuilt.I have contacted a few contractors and the estimated cost is between $75k to $85k to rebuild the home to code.The downside is that this being a smaller city and rent being low, the properties in the area are selling for about $50k.I'm not sure if I could get a loan to rebuild and hold the property long term?...

I see all of these ads for hard money lending but I don't want to apply for anything and take a hit on my credit score which I have been dutifully rebuilding after a divorce a few years back.  

Now Santa Clara Country cites a violation and requires to rebuild the garage based on current building codes and leaves us only 25 days to complete the work.

Estimating 5% of the property value for repairs and maintenance essentially has you fully rebuilding the property once every 20 years.

We are sure that someone with the means to rebuild, perhaps a builder, can do quite well with this property.   

I am now trying to get back in the game and utilize the skills and experience I have to rebuild my portfolio and to start rehabbing again which is my passion.I would want to hear from anyone who has any leads on properties that are for sale, any reports that I can review for Marketing: probate, divorce, pre-foreclosures, foreclosures etc.