I am on the product team and helped roll out the Featured Agent program.

While cap rates have risen, you are still seeing groups buying in the low to mid 5%s for 70's-90's product.  

What are the best methods and products to tackle these tough cleaning tasks?

There is no such thing as a "guarantee" only the perception of.if it's a concern in your offer, find out what it would cost to carry a bond or insurance product for the seller. 

You could then get a HELOC/LOC on that paid of property (a product that doesn't require you to use it) and then if you did have a big emergency you had a line to use on it.Now, ALL of this is dependent on how much money you have in the bank, how many properties you have, what your income will be like in retirement, what the standard age would be for your end of life (that's a scary one to think about), and while yes, you can certainly take equity out I just think it would be good to sit down with a financial planner...or even some other investors that are local to you that are around your age demographic and see what they are doing.I'm glad you are thinking about this for sure.  

Stay out of Endsley that's the worse area.Watch out for those turnkey products.

Reviewing their product page it does appear the $25/month is base with the marginal $1/unit pricing after that. https://latchel.com/emergency/So more economical as the portfolio grows, though very curious Your XP once repairs are triggered since most after hours calls would be “surge pricing” for any contractor they bring in. in 15 years I’ve only had a few of the stereotypical “after hours broken toilet” calls, but I know that’s highly variable by location and property class.

Or, at least the company's offering them in other states think Texas law would not look kindly on the product so as you point out they do not offer in Texas. 

I finally got down to analyzing deals, working with a realtor, etc. but I’m having a hard time investing in an STR when I know the returns I get from investing in more product in my business is exponentially more and quicker turnaround.

Sold products for my day job in South America.