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.

After many years of listening to BP/Real Estate Podcasts, reading, and building up my finances, I believe there’s no better time than now to finally jump into the real estate world.

Given his spending habits during his first term, it might be a wash.Costs to build new properties will probably increase.

He continues to deny he lives there, lied to the police when they came with a code violation and inspection, and most recently overloaded the electrical and blew/snapped the line!