Overall, my family had a great experience, which is what matters most. First, the good: Lots of space to sleep for 8 of us, 4 adults and 4 "kids" from 10 to 18 years of age, and one dog. Rooftop patio was nice, though it looks about 3x the size in the pictures. Expectations aside, the rooftop patio had plenty of seating and the firepit was just enough to keep us comfortable on what were still cool but unseasonably warm nights over Christmas weekend. The décor was beautiful, the pantry was nicely stocked, and the bottle of champagne was a nice touch.
Now, the bad: Garage door was broken upon arrival. After trying to get it open for a bit, I finally messaged the owner, who told me the previous guests broke the door and the owner was working on fixing it. A message informing us of this would have been great prior to arrival but I can only imagine owners were themselves recently notified and didn't have a chance to remedy the situation or let me know about it. As a result of the garage door not opening, there were 4 large trash cans full to the brim from the previous guests. Looks like previous guests had themselves quite the party, as there was a large decoration of about two-dozen birthday balloons in the garage as well.
In addition, couches were stained, which I made sure to notify the owners of immediately. When we noticed that, it prompted us to go on a hunt for any other potential damage we might be faulted for upon checkout. Not the first thing I wanted to do upon arrival but gladly, not much else to be found.
Finally, the neighborhood was not great. It is what I'd call an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. As a pretty big guy, I felt safe walking around but I wouldn't feel comfortable having my wife and/or kids walk around by themselves. (Not much reason to walk around, in any case, unless, as happened with us, you have a dog escape at about 8p at night and have to run around like a crazy person at night yelling the dog's name.)
Overall, I have no regrets about renting Brandon's place, and would do so again if in the area. Most of our issues were outside of the owner's control but it's always best to have realistic expectations.
One other note: We checked out about 15 minutes late (we live in Eastern time and got the checkout times mixed up - 11 ET is 10 CT, duh) so appreciate Brandon's understanding, even though there were guests coming in that day. That said, we did get to meet the very kind cleaning lady who patiently waited for us to clear out while talking to us about our dog and telling us about hers. We did do our best to leave the place in the condition we found it, so hopefully the 15-minute delay didn't put her off too much.