A lot of the fire victims sold their lots rather than rebuild as they were empty nesters.

I carry enough insurance to rebuild in the event of a loss. 

I am looking to probably tear down (it's over 100 years old) and rebuild.

My recommendation is to always have a property contingency, unless it is a complete re-build/gut rehab and you are basically buying for land value.  

Just so happens I had to rebuild a chimney on my last house. 

I'm 4 years into it and my credit score is in the low 7's so I've worked really hard to repair and rebuild my credit.

.- Since this is a full gut and rebuild, I shouldn't have much in the way of cap-ex, once completed, for quite some time.So my questions are as follows:- Are there pros (or cons) in the above strategies that I'm not considering that might help me make my decision?

Some will shame me for mentioning this but Dave Ramsey has a lot of helpful material on tackling that debt and rebuilding credit.

I will fix the sag in the floor, get rid of some of the weird, and drive it for a few more years, hopefully during that time the north fever will spread south and it will make sense to scrape and rebuild 2 units on it.

Also I would request a rebuild/burn down letter, which basically states that the property is either permitted or legal non-conforming and should the house burn down or be destroyed, you are legally permitted to rebuild it.