I will still do a deposit I sometimes will do demo first in order to get it.

The water and demo damage from the fire department was actually worse than the fire damage itself.This is a restoration job...

Things like ordering the dumpster, doing demo, getting materials on site, etc are things you could potentially do yourself and possibly afford you the ability to get out ahead of your draws so you do not feel as much pressure coming out of your pocket.  

Ok....well as you demo a small pony wall you reveal that there is electrical and water in there...crap.  

So at a positive 1 elevation, my yearly flood premium will not be bad.My goal is to not keep the existing dwelling, instead I would use it while I am paying off of my note, and once the note is paid off I would then demo it to replace it with a strip center with 6 units.

There is some extra work to deal with demo and coordination of existing structure.

What I am talking about is the 10,000 houses there that are on the city's demo list.

To give you an idea, we have one of our tile guys who will demo old tile/flooring and install new tile that includes labor and materials for around $4-5 per Sq.

Make sure you see if them have a demo to test them and find out which one you like the best.

I'm not sure what your timeline is but you may want to consider doing some basic construction yourself beginning with demo and take your time with the rehab.