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!

The average company only survives for ten years, while even large companies typically last just 18 years.

Many of my decent wholesalers present failed flips for someone else to take over.  

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

Especially if im paying a decent amount, i remember if they went cheap on the TP. maybe its just me.It's just you.

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

Yes, those are the standard fees and pricing you'll find at most PM companies.

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.”

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.