A reserve is unnecessary, but I still keep around $15,000 - $20,000 in my account.The point is, that you should sit down and assess your finances to determine what the worst-case scenario may look like, how much you would need to cover it without impacting your life, and whether you will need to build a reserve.

My wholesale business found the deal, I bought from my wholesale business to build my portfolio. 

Get your basic estate docs in place before building a complex entity structure.  

In my market, which is a fairly economical place to build, I am friends with full time builders that are in their properties about $150k/door for construction level finishes.  

If you'd ask this question while still employed I'd say apply the $8500 toward knocking down the debt quicker but since that is not the case I would build up your reserves to about 6 months then begin applying those funds to bring down the debt. 

House hacking is a great start in building your portfolio. 

I do have several S8 rentals, while they are generally performing well, there is more paperwork involved in the leasing and the strict inspections can be quite a pain. 

But if you/your team like to spend some time building your own flow, feel like it's better to build it on go high level directly. 

Glad you are setting aside money, but if the HVAC is 20 years old, or the septic system has never been pumped, or the roof is 25 years old, etc; you will get hit with a cost before your build up enough set aside.How stable is the other tenant? 

I would like to build several (2 - 6) "shipping container" type homes for either short, mid or long term rental.