I understand that you should earmark a certain set percentage of rent per month to maintenance and vacancy reserves. 

  $750k of this money is earmarked for purchasing a residence for me. or trust planning purposes, my folks need to even things out between my brother and I.

At this point, I'd say there is a 50/50 chance that the stars will align and we'll be able to purchase an apartment in Brooklyn in the next 12-18 months (using a separate pool of funds than the ones earmarked for out of state investing). 

At his point earmarking 50% for Dollar cost averaging into market on drops and 50 syndication deals. 

Maybe take some of that wedding budget, and earmark it for your first deal. 

If the $4000 isn’t ear marked for another project and you don’t have any plans for it then I would go with it.  

It's hard to tell if I can earmark a specific rent value, maybe $50/month.  

The reserves are in place when needed whether they were considered cash flow or ear marked for maintenance in my original calculations . 

Especially as I often work a few different investments through a single Series LLC, it helps my earmark the expenses for each separate series so that if there is ever a lawsuit I can provide documentation that each of those series has been functioning separately from one another, even if they are all using the same bank account.Each person has their own system.

I personally have a lot of interest in the Bronx especially anything near Orchard beach as It is ear marked for re development  here is ling to some info about what they are looking to do in the area...https://www.amny.com/real-estate/orchard-beach-pavilion-1.25619117