Newbie help! Leased my first 2 units - reserves & debt questions

[Kuriakos Mellos]

It happened..don't really know..but it happened! After several no's, being beat out by cash offers, going in above asking and not getting contracts, going thru HORRIBLE contractors, finally securing a property but realized it was a disaster and having to pull out, not being able to find a stable property manager and a million other things that happened during the last few months - I was able to leverage the fact I was home, get lost in Biggerpockets books and podcasts ( as well as other articles, news) and will now have two doors bringing me income starting next month.

Both of my properties needed work to get going, but I was very conscious of budget and tried to limit additional debt that I took on (although I put it on a 0% interest card) - to allow more funds for a potential future purchase of an investment property.  I leveraged my day job to pay as much of the costs with money coming in as to not 'fall behind'. (Debt makes me nervous!)

So two questions:

A) While I will begin placing vacancy funds and operating future funds in SEPARATE accounts for each property - what is a good goal to reach ? 6 months worth of PTI per property?  Is it wise to maybe put a little more in those reserves each month being that I do not necessarily really need the cash flow right now?  I think I had heard Brandon Turner say in one of his podcasts that he never goes below $50 K in savings for his properties. (I am assuming that is for multiple units - and obvioulsy he has been doing this for a much longer time.)

B) Do I use the first few months of cash flow to pay down the debt before pocketing it? Saving for future investments? What have you all seen as a normal amount of debt acquired to get a property ready for business? I definately was guilty of maybe making a few things too nice for renters, and something I will work on that moving forward - but as a ball pack is there a percentage that is used?

I truly appreciate the help! And your podcasts and comments have been great to read the last few months.