I’ve exhausted the obvious competition and wondering if there are any out there who’ve come up with a creative solution or found some cheaper carriers?

They will also know which carriers are the most competetive. 

@Karla Olivares I'll DM you the insurance carriers my clients use for IA & IL. 

I hear about carriers pulling out of high-risk markets.

As OP said, hard to find umbrella that will cover STR papered insurance unless I find a carrier that writes it under my name personally and names the LLC as an additional insured (I own my properties under LLCs).  

I pointed out the language in the policy and the carrier rep still said it would be covered but would not put that in writing so the tenant had to find a different carrier.

-Dave I've seen some carriers start as low as $50,000 but I'd recommend requiring $300,000 - the monthly price difference will be negligible. 

There aren’t a lot of carriers and the policies are really high right now.  

They are typically chasing the insurance carrier as that’s often the easiest source of payment available. 

Many carriers will not insure someone in this case at all, and the ones that do (if available in your state) will charge dramatically high rates, think $10-$20k a year for a policy.