Travel is mine, I wanna see the world, meet people, and experience life outside my comfort zone. 

This is because most DSCR lenders typically require a minimum of 12 months' real estate ownership experience before considering you for 30-year debt options.

I'm hoping everything continues so I can return to let everyone know about my first experience using a hard money lender. 

(which I like) so I would like someone with local experience rather than be the farthest flung property for a city-focused PM (if they'd even do it) and potentially become neglected or incur higher costs because of distance and/or unfamiliarity.A little help?

What skill sets and experiences have you drawn from? 

There is a lot that you don't know, but house hacking and managing the property yourself will give you that step, not leap, into property management where the mistakes you make will come with far smaller dollar signs and very valuable learning experiences.....and of course, you keep you hard earned rent in your pocket which will only help you moving forward.

I would add....does your partner have rei experience?

Get the benefits of the primary loan, low downpayment, beginner experience as a landlord, etc. 

Has anyone gone through this or have any related experience? 

I see you just started investing in Los Angeles, did you have prior experience flipping before these two houses?