Occasionally I catch some cleanliness issued that I am not satisfied with which I believe is due to variability in attention to detail between people on their crew, or lack of training and familiarity with my property.I've seen mentions of the value of post cleaning pictures from hosts on other forums.

More big name companies will join the STR industry and hosts who are not exceeding expectation will be weeded out by their money power.

https://www.portland.gov/phb/rental-services/documents/tenan... 

If you did not like that experience, maybe you should try a smaller company to get a more personalized service experience.  

I spoke with the title company who is still helping us wrap up the set-up of a servicing company, and she confirmed that they would be responsible for the principal / interest for Nov and Dec, while we are responsible for the escrow shortage balance (as agreed upon).Not sure how it was missed - not my favorite title company to work with.

You can be an agent, property manager, service provider, etc. 

Use a service like TurboTenant or Avail......

Just struggling to find any good leads with not much access to mls and other paid services.

Anyone have a direct mail or postcard service they recommend for such a scenario?

It'll likely take a month or two assuming that the loan is with one of the large servicing companies that move at a glacial pace.