I think Peter covered the best course of action.

.)- All in Cost = Cost to build * Square foot  - Sales Price = All in Cost + (All in cost * 20%)* Covers contractor and soft cost on either fee based or cost+- Profit = (Sales price - (Sales Price * 7%))* - All in Cost   accounts for agent fees and closing cost- Initial List Price = Sales price + 10%      A buffer to test market absorption- Break Even being All in cost, point where everyone is paid except me. - List price is to test the market absorption at "x" price. 250k land + build.

., $700) to cover this, or are there other strategies for handling utilities in this situation?

I would be looking to use hard money to cover the costs of renovations.

@Chris Kay finding a quality, cost-effective contractor is extremely difficult:(There are thousands of contractors that are great talkers, but rarely perform within budget.Standard bait & switch is to lowball a bid, then once they get started all sorts of things "pop up" that somehow their bid didn't cover.

If you generate enough money annually to dismiss a W2, then consider covering the ever increasing costs of retirement & health care and those do not go at inflation metrics but usually way higher. 

Hi Shayan, You will be able to close on properties quickly and have access to rehab funds immediately if you are able to qualify for a HELOC that can cover both the purchase and rehab.You should be careful though as if you cannot sell the property or you run out of rehab funding, you may end up being over leveraged.

Our insurance has been canceled on this home and we are working on getting insurance to cover when this current one ends.

Or if they were rentals the losses may have been covered up by the Ponzi scheme.

You would  then alert your insurance to it and it will go up but you would be covered.