Furnished Finder

Tried to add to my review but got the Oops message, so I'm posting an additional comment; so, this is just a follow-up to my previous review. Landlords are using Furnished Finder to make easy money and cheat their renters.

Beware the ones that insist on cash-demand a receipt or at least a text that you can save to show proof you paid. Try to visit the place in advance because the descriptions don't meet the actual condition of the rental. For instance, one for a "whole in-law suite" was basically 2 bedrooms for rent, one with a bed, another with a small couch (sitting room), no kitchen usage and the landlord (who supposedly lives downstairs) always comes up to the living room and kitchen at all times but you have no kitchen privileges. (Jonesborough,TN).

Another advertised as "cabin in the glen" is actually a converted tool shed in a wooded back yard-there is NO view of mountains and farmland as you can't see beyond the trees. There is traffic noise and noise from trains. The owners untrained dogs never leave you alone and will jump up on your car scratching the doors. The owner fires a rifle in the backyard adjacent to the rental.

The only sink is in the bathroom area with the toilet so you brush your teeth, prep your food, and wash your dishes there. He claimed he had a professional cleaning team, later it was a maid but regardless, there was filth on back of the portable fan, soot all over the tiny pot belly stove, cob webs everywhere, dried dead bugs in windowsills, mounds and mounds of leaves that you can sweep with the same broom you use indoors. He demands cash and will not give back deposits.(Erwin, TN). Another rental had an idle son who would sit on the porch directly across from the rental for up to 6 hrs a day on his phone.

He would occasionally weed whack the grass and leave debris all over the front entrance of the rental, and on the door frame of chipping paint and rotting wood. There is massive amounts of noise from a gas station and main roadway from the rear of this place. The woman left leftover food from the previous renter to include alcohol, there was congealed stuff in the freezer bin under a bag of ice, and dried crud in the waste bin covered with a plastic bag. You might be excited to get some free beer but that isn't a bonus for those of us who don't drink.

Also I would not trust the other refrigerated/frozen food not knowing if it had been compromised by sitting out too long or being defrosted and refrozen. She had a large utility shelf that held all sorts of junk from old monitors, glues, paints, etc. Realize that a lot of these are considered volatile substances that you are breathing in. There were fast food napkins under the bed along with bottle caps, thick dirt under the furniture.

Once again another place with those freaking air fresheners everywhere. (Johnson City, TN.)
This is another caution point to all who use these rentals: fans that are blowing on high speed and multiple air fresheners everywhere usually means there is odor from mold or the toilet which has to sump into the main line above ( because its below the sewer line) or to a septic on the property. She didn't refund my deposit because she didn't have a new renter.(Johnson City, TN). Fear of a bad review got my money returned.

And for the last rental which was supposed to be impeccably clean, I found mouse droppings and congealed urine in the drawer below the oven, a child's sock under the settee, weird child paper drawings under the bed, mold under the stove top where someone had boiled over some soup that mold grew on but dried out when the moisture was gone, ants who paraded in on a regular basis because there were food particles on the floor to the pantry and under the microwave stand. And please don't give me this nonsense about it being a usual thing for basement apartments to have bugs. A place will not have bugs if it's properly cleaned and you've cut off a bugs food source and water source, or any extra moisture they may need. Lastly beware those no flow, low flow toilets as they do not have water coming in all around the bowl because you will have to stand around flushing 2-3 times or using the toilet brush to jab things down the bowl which would normally be washed down.

I can't caution all of you enough to check these places out before renting. Pay attention to your instincts, if something seems wrong or doesn't sit right with you, get out of there, don't rent. You folks who get comfy enough to set up accounts on the TV- remove them when you leave (You Tube or other accounts).

Especially personal photos- why would you put your personal photos in a place where you're renting? (computers, TV).

Just a note to the above entry: it should read "vetting process" not getting process (could not edit).. In Furnished Finder you put in a request for short term rentals in the area and time frame in which you're seeking to rent.

A lot of listings come up that aren't available for your specified dates, or they're out of the area you request. You get some idiots that waste your time by contacting you to say their rental is not available. I'm in a housing crisis and I don't like people wasting my time. Based off some restricted selection parameters provided by FF to listers, it is very difficult to tell if the rental is a room in the home or a whole separate unit (ie.

basement or in-law suite; attached unit, or unattached). FF finally put in an area in the upper right hand area designating "room", "entire unit" which helps a little. However, this is the big problem. Naturally the pictures posted are going to highlight the aesthetic features and you don't find out until you get to the place that the aesthetic features are very few.

BEWARE the basement apartments with no windows. First, you can develop Seasonal Affective Disorder quite rapidly from not seeing natural daylight and will notice unusual bouts of depression; plus there's many occasions where you will dress inappropriately because the basement is so much colder than the actual temp outdoors. Realize too, that many basements don't have temperature control and may rely off of vents from the main unit upstairs. Also, there's the exhaust fumes from vehicles, ATVs or mowers in the garage.

Tennessee has some very high radon levels- something which most homes aren't tested for, which can put one at risk for developing cancer. Second, many of these basement units are below the sewer line, which means all waste has to be pumped to be emptied, often traversing an 8 foot vertical pipe. In many cases with a cheap, small, inefficient, pump, this can mean reflux and odors. I was tasked to cut off the alarm to the pump in the garage when it was set off by trying to drain water after a shower.

I don't rent to acquire additional duties. Renting a unit in a house puts you at risk of experiencing privacy breaches from the landlord yelling down at you from the top of the steps, or people taking short cuts to the garage and other ugly behaviors like using excessive scent by the owner. In one case, the owner got offended by the fecal scent emanating from their inefficient pump unit that she deliberately fumigated down into the basement with perfumed scent, which sent me to the ER in respiratory distress. She was trying to teach me a lesson.

This was a deliberate act to hurt me which is classified as assault.
There's also the issue of plain stupidity in not providing closets/ closet space, towel rods, paper towel holders, dressers or shelves. I've had to use bungee cords in the last 3 rentals for paper towels or for toilet paper, as well as to leave my clothing in duffle bags on the floor. These places also don't disclose the nasty odors that smell like week old frat parties of rotting garbage and emesis. Additionally, the landlord can have unspecified expectations of the renter joining them on the porch every afternoon to sit idly for a couple or more hours with aimless chat, or the landlord feels obliged to invade your privacy either by going through your personal stuff or incessantly interrogating you about your personal life, despite telling them you're a private person.

The furniture has been substandard for the most part with sway back beds to depleted cushion sofas that have you sinking to floor level. The prices, in most cases, are outrageous. My last rental, I paid $1700 for a month's rent, some strange $150 fee, plus $300 cleaning fee. Well the place was filthy with dirt under the furniture and curtains, dead bugs in the window sills, fluorescent lighting, A/C and TV that don't work, and a tiny amount of available cabinet space to store your food items.

Some even have the audacity to use these rental spaces for their overflow storage, and cabinets listed as "do not use" spaces because their personal junk is in there. Dishes can be minimal with many that are stained or chipped, the same with cookware. Appliances are also minimal, but most do come with dirty coffee makers with old coffee grinds/pods in the reservoir or mold.

It has been a very big disappointment. I wished these places like FF had stricter guidelines for listing with reviews that go directly to the corporate office to determine whether the person(s) can continue to list their rentals.

The details :
Customer Service ( they try to be pleasant on the phone ) All of them are in Latin America and accent issues can be an issue. They are not the most intelligent folks and for technical issues they are not highky skilled.
The instructions for the website and how to set up are not good, and it's harder than it should be to set up the pages for your rentals.
I had 2 rooms available...

and each one had to be done separately for the same house. ( Inefficient )
They didn't bother to tell me about the fact that they have a Facebook group - and it's not published anywhere. Only when on a call with the folks from Mexico do you get the info - and then you need to find out how to join - as there's no instructions for that either. Mind you: don't bother as it's only wasted time, you won't be found by anyone on it - or find anyone on it.
They didn't bother to tell me that the site choses the closest hospital to you - which could be a veterinarian's office who doesn't use any nurses under contract - of course.

I had to go in and chose the hospitals in the area in which would use nurses under contract... and they were slightly further away than another hospital of some kind... honestly - don't bother.
These are only a few of the issues I had while setting up...

never mind the customer service calls, the follow ups, the chasing down of issues, the follow ups to the follow ups.
Summary: Don't spend good energy on bad. This is bad.