First off, we've been using VBBO houses for the past 6 years and I've never left a negative review or had as serious an issue as with this house. As a lawyer, I state the following is true under penalty of perjury. I'll start with the Cons first:
CONS:
1) NO CELL PHONE RECEPTION. Period. My wife and I use T-Mobile and had no cell phone reception. I went to every corner of the house and all of my calls dropped. This is critical for my business. I emailed the owner Dee this and she emailed flippantly she knew about the issue, but she said Verizon works. She never posted this fact in her description which is a glaring omission. It's possible the other reviewers had Verizon, but this still should be noted. I had to buy a Verizon phone. I'm well-off so this didn't matter, but it was Dee's attitude. She's a nice person until you start questioning something.
2) INTERNET Did Not Work. I had to reboot the modem every hour - it was unbelievable. When I texted Dee, again she took 3 days to get back to me. And then gave me an 800 number to call. I shook my head knowing the outcome. Why doesn't she do this? I called Time Warner and they said they needed a password, so again Dee wasted my time calling them. When the issue was not resolved, I demanded she tell the Time Warner guy to come out or issue us a refund. She finally moved. The Time Warner guy came out and inspected the situation. He then said the reception was a -10 and could only be rectified by increasing the speed. Dee's husband was there and heard the entire thing. When the situation was still bad, Dee had the audacity to demand she come over and inspect the internet. Like why? Her own husband was there. What could she do that the Time Warner guy could not do?
3) NOISE: This was not Dee's fault. The neighbor rented the house to these three fraternity guys who threw a loud party across the street until 3 am. I called 911 several times but they didn't do anything. Finally on the 3rd week, I called the Sheriff and they finally came out and quieted the party. I'm suing these guys and the homeowner next month for violation of my quiet enjoyment of a house.
4) LOCATION: Hacienda Heights is a far distance from downtown Los Angeles to the east. If you don't mind driving, then it's fine.
5) DEE'S DEFENSIVE ATTITUDE: I don't think even to this day, the owner Dee understands the problem of what happened. She started out very nice, but became very defensive in the end.