Does anyone hear have any experience with either of these companies? 

Would love feedback from anyone with personal investing and/or property management experience in these cities.

This has nothing to do with real estate experience. 

Our strategy is to buy out of shape properties and rehab them back into shape, so a GC with experience in doing extensive renovations at once would be preferred.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

experience: I’m on my 3rd flipage: early 40sday job: brand and web design/development retirement savings: noneI want to learn about buy and hold to secure having SOMETHING for retirement!

You don't need to know everything to get started; you need a foundation to build on, and the rest will come through experience and then refining your education.You can build a basic understanding of investing in 3-6 months.

@Robert Gorra - I've had a similar experience where I've had a really hard time with getting GC's to even give me an estimate, and the few that have have been way overpriced (ie, they want me to put in $20k of cabinets in a budget flip) or have had their prices go up by about 40% and still not give me a firm price when I try to nail down the scope of work.

Quote from @David Lambert: Hey David, I have experience managing properties for my mentor before going out and buying my first one.

If you are looking for proper guidance from someone that has house hacked quite a few times and has the knowledge and experience to help get you going in the right direction, I recommend reaching out to @Josh Green.