There's little to no benefit to the owner and the person running the arbitrage is missing a very obvious, much simpler business opportunity- just start an STR management company and operate as such.

Also consider contacting houses that look vacant, simply door knocking in a neighborhood that you are interested in and talking to the homeowners in a genuine way, For Sale By Owners is another potential, using an App like Nextdoor or Facebook pages/groups related to local real estate and just telling the group what you are looking for, contractors also know about houses coming on the market soon and so do property management companies, and finally garage sales are a good way to find off-market properties as people prepare to sell.To Your Success!

I feel like it would be great to trust a property management company on all of this, but it would be hard not to step in if you could do a better job at screening bad tenants (eg screening HUGE future problems).I initially managed properties myself, but now I delegate that responsibility to my business partner, personal assistant, or a property manager at my brokerage.Most PMs I know will send you an applicant for final approval and you can get on the phone with them and ask them questions

For the last couple of years I have been working from home for a very good company so I kept moving the financial goal posts because I wasn't miserable. 

Does anyone have a service or company they'd recommend for this?

Applicant credit scores should be treated with a high level of care and should not be handed out when they aren't assured that you are locking them up and taking due care with private and sensitive data.So, many places, including the screening company we used for years before moving to a PM, provide a suitability score rather than the actual credit score. 

https://natlawreview.com/article/texas-federal-court-issues-nationwide-injunction-against-enforcement-corporate“We note this is a preliminary injunction, and we urge reporting companies to pay attention for additional updates and proceedings in this and other cases which could modify or change this order.”

In those cases, the main criteria we add to our lease is that everyone that comes to stay there must be subject to a background check paid by the company.

Although for me being one a premier client of our title company they would do date downs for me for free and also keep a running spread sheet for me.

For insurance in South Florida, I’ve heard good things about companies like Citizens and some specialized providers that focus on high-risk areas.