This place has been awful to work with. At the beginning, they seemed wonderful and helpful. When it was time to resign their 4 bedroom apartment there was going to be a switch. One of the girls was going to live somewhere else and then another girl was going to move in. The 3 original girls who lived there signed their lease for the 4 bedroom. However, then COVID-19 hit and the 4th roommate (who would be new to ISU) decided to hold off signing since she wasn't sure students would be on campus in the 2020-2021 school year. First Site would do NOTHING to help out. The girls went down, explained their situation and they were told, "You didn't tell us when you signed your lease that you would need us to find a 4th roommate, so you're responsible for the 4th rent." Seriously? We have a worldwide pandemic and they would NOT help! So, these college students have been covering the 4th person's rent. All these other businesses and companies have understood hardships with COVID-19 and First Site has done absolutely NOTHING to help out. Our girls have NEVER been late in their rent, never had any issues and First Site doesn't care! I would NEVER recommend them to anybody! Also, our girls had to move one floor up and the reimbursement for the deposit is a joke. All three moms went down to the apartment and moved our girls out into the new apartment (during the pandemic) and charged our girls for things they were going to do for next tenants. We vacuumed carpets, there were NO stains on carpets but our girls got charged for cleaning carpets. (something I'm sure they do anyway) This place is a joke! read more

We have had many maintenance requests this first semester which has been quite frustrating, but the maintenance staff through first site has been great. Specifically one member named Jamie. He is very friendly, helpful, and understanding of all of our requests. He even goes above and beyond and fixes issues that were not included in our initial requests. Great guy! read more

DO NOT RENT FROM FIRST SITE! This rental agency is the not only most poorly managed, poorly serviced rental agency on the ISU campus, they are the most disrespectful and rude organization myself and my family have ever dealt with. I've dealt with some pretty horrible service and customer service people in my life and First Site takes the cake. If you rent from them expect to be treated like a second class citizen and verbally assaulted when you make phone calls to their office - WARNING: SARAH and JUSTIN are the worst. Here is an example: We requested early move-in to our unit - expecting to be able to move in a week after school ended for the summer classes. We filled out the proper forms, made copies of the forms and waited the week before we were supposed to pick up the keys to move in. On the day we were supposed to pick up the keys, we made a trip to the First Site offices where they told us, "You cannot move in early because you didn't request an early move in or fill out an early move-in form." Baffled, myself and my roommates collected all of the forms and copies of the forms with dates we sent to first site and made a phone call. On the phone call, myself, my roommates and my roommates parents were on speaker to discuss the situation. When nicely discussing the error with the First Site agent and telling her we have the documents to prove we were scheduled to move-in early she abruptly stopped the conversation and in a harsh tone said, "WE DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES!" What? Who says that? You don't make mistakes? Everyone makes mistakes, I don't care who you are or what you do and obviously in this situation your company made a mistake! This is just the tip of the iceberg with that and after all of the meetings and conversations to follow they never fully took ownership over the mistake but relented and let us move in two days after our scheduled move-in - by the way we still paid for those two days and the unit was not fully cleaned and of course, we are still dealing with them on that. We've called three times to have them come out and clean the unit with no response. I unfortunately, have more horror stories about their lack of respect for their tenants, college students, parents, in general. They mistreat their tenants, they are unfair and they do not live up to their mission on their website to be committed to resident satisfaction, and provide superior service. They are full of crap and for some reason have a huge chip on their shoulder when it comes to dealing with their CUSTOMERS - which I believe is a term not recognized by them. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM! read more

I rented an apartment from First Site several years ago. I kept the place in very good condition and even cleaned it thoroughly for 2 days before I left to make sure there would be no squabbling over my security deposit. They sent some short asshole with Napoleon's complex and a very unprofessional demeanor in a big white truck to do the inspection who found things like dust on the windowsill, a dent in an exterior screen, and a dripping faucet to count against me and prevent me from getting my security deposit back. They also allowed five or six unrelated persons to rent the apartment across from me and the strong odors from their food was always heavy in the air and barely tolerable. If you rent from them just know that they will do everything within their powers to deny you your security deposit. I would never in a hundred years rent from this company again. read more

The actual worst. Staff is terrible, especially Ulysses. They will try to charge you for everything and anything, even if it was there before you moved in. The staff is impatient and plain rude. Our fridge didn't work for the entire year and was finally replaced right before we moved out. Our toilet wouldn't flush and after several complaints was never actually fixed. Never have enough parking in the lot and are forced to either call the towing company or receive a ticket for parking in ISU's lot. read more

Terrible company, I do not recommend them. The staff is rude and unprofessional. They are sharks who will try to suck money out of you. You will never see your direct deposit. They charged us an outrageous fee upon move out. Almost $800 for normal wear and tear. Run away from them. read more

DO NOT RENT FROM First Site! Nothing but crooks. No matter how clean the place is when u leave they find something wrong and triple charge. If I known what jerks the rental staff are especially at renewal time the constant hounding and then raise the rent again when lease isn't signed on their terms. Such a poorly ran business. I give First Site a negative 5 star rating! read more

WORST APARTMENTS TO RENT FROM IN NORMAL, IL!!! After moving out of a First Site apartment, they took all of my security deposit and I had some questions about it. I couldn't access my portal correctly online so I called the Office and talked to Sean on the phone. In the beginning of the phone conversation Sean was nice and helpful. But towards the end of the conversation he was going to email me the photos I couldn't access online. So I told him thank you and started to ask him if he had my email address to send it too and he hung up on me. So I called back and asked to speak to the manager. Sean put the manager Jimmy on the phone, and I proceeded to make my complaint about how it was rude that Sean hung up on me in the middle of me speaking. Jimmy began to argue with me on the phone saying that he was standing next to Sean the whole time and that he wasn't being rude. (Even though I never said he was being rude, I said it WAS rude that he hung up on me). I began telling Jimmy that I have never had a good experience with this office. That every time I call or go in, everyone is so rude to me. Jimmy began laughing at me on the phone saying, "Oh, were the rudest apartment complex in the history of apartment complex's?" Jimmy continued to speak unbelievably rude to me, arguing with me and still laughing at me, telling me I was a liar. When I had enough of the ridiculous customer service from this employee/manger, I asked to speak to the person above him/the owner. Jimmy laughed at me, said he was the owner of First site and hung up on me. I am extremely hurt and disrespected by the treatment of the staff. I am not sure how things are supposed to be done, but as someone who has working in customer service for 9 years, and that customer service has paid my way through college, I know that that is not how things should be handled. I had to call First Site Mantenece just to get someone to talk to me and tell me what I should do. The man (I forgot his name) was so nice to me on the phone and couldn't believe that they were treating me so poorly. This is beyond unacceptable. I can't even imagine how they treat other residents if that is how the employee's and the manager treated me. I am so disgusted with the service that from now on I will tell all of my friends, and their siblings never to sign with First Site as they are still attending ISU for some years to come. P.S. They told me that Sean emailed me the photos, and he never did. I still can not access anything on my portal from my end. And I only have 7 days from today to write a letter if I need to if I was charged wrongly for something. So please get back to me as soon as you can, I would greatly appreciate it. read more

First Site by far is the most unprofessional housing provider we have ever encountered. From the minute we signed the contract, we have regretted our decision to sign with them. From ill-trained staff to rude cleaning contractors, First Site has shown their true colors by talking trash, insulting our daughter, and making it difficult for us to ensure a safe and clean apartment for our daughter and her friends. We look forward to the end of the lease agreement. What a shame our young students receive their first taste of independence with such a horrible business. If we could give zero stars, we would. read more

My son lived in a First Site managed apartment provided by the company he was doing an internship with. We inspected the apartment prior to moving in and were required to post a deposit. I thought the apartment was somewhat dirty at move-in. At move out, the apartment was a lot cleaner with my wife and my son's fiancée spending a couple hours cleaning it. First Site took a third of the deposit saying that the apartment needed extensive cleaning;( I would not trust this business!! read more

STUDENTS: Beware! Ulises and his FirstSite crew give rental management companies a bad name. He writes leases for possession that equate to a few days shy of nine months, yet charges a full ten months' rent + a "security deposit". Think about it: over $23,000 collected on a 4-bedroom unit in nine months. That's criminal. Be sure to take photographs and forward to management with your move-in check-in. I had over 75 photographs at check-in of service items and dirty bathrooms, etc. and FirstSite still tried to stiff my group for over $700 in cleaning and painting charges when we moved out. Our apartment was filthy when we moved in and had to be thoroughly cleaned just to live there. The oven never worked. The refrigerator tipped forward when you opened the doors. We could see light looking out around our front door. The front door look was hard to use. The bar stools at the granite countertop were wobbly. The bathrooms had disgusting shower doors that were covered in soap scum. The wood plank flooring was not glued or installed properly, and was separating throughout the entire main floor. The blinds were even cheap -- light filtering -- so forget about a dark room if you want to sleep. Multiple service items were all reported at move-in but were left unrepaired nine months later. The microwave vented to an upper cabinet -- FIRE HAZARD! Cheap! Cheap! Cheap! Fully furnished? The faux "leather" couch had loose legs, the end table wobbled, and the bedframes were cheap roll-out wheeled frames with cheap mattresses. Snow removal on the parking lot was non-existent. Perks? Finely dressed college students with a "welcome bag" at move-in. The black metal fence that encloses the complex looks nice, too. The television was nice, but for what was paid in rent, we should have had a mounted big-screen in every room! Don't even think about getting your security deposit back. The paint job was sloppy at move in yet, when we moved out we were charged $500 for paint for what was described on the move-out walk through as four walls that needed "touch-up". Judge Judy says that normal "wear and tear" is required by law, and that painting is the landlord's responsibility. Would truly love to see Ulises defend his company on Judge Judy! Don't be fooled ISU students. The best thing that can happen to slumlords like FirstSite is to let them go out of business. Simply stated: Don't rent from Ulises and FirstSite. State Farm: please investigate these crooks before you do business with FirstSite and allow your interns to be taken advantage of, too. FirstSite claims that they are completely rented each summer with State Farm interns, and this is the sole reason that FirstSite requires ISU students to move out the moment semester ends -- don't even think about staying until the graduation ceremony! read more

The worst agency to do business with. They make you write a good review about them when you get your keys to make themselves look better. Take a look at the reviews on here and it'll show you how sad they actually are. Their competitors, Young America, are much better. read more

DO NOT RENT FROM FIRST SITE!!! They come across as very nice and chill but in all actuality they're awful. My apartment flooded TWICE and they didn't do anything to help us as tennents. It was cleaned up but they didn't compensate us for our stuff lost or comp our rent or anything. The maintenance guys are nice but they don't come at a reasonable time and take FOREVER. If you call the main office with questions, they claim to never know anything and do so in the most rude an condescending manner. My neighbors recently had a flood due to a something on the toilet (the cause of my first flood) and First Site did not call to tell them what happened. They simply texted them about a leak being fixed and when they got back, their apartment smelled AWFUL and all of the carpets were torn up. Hours later they were put up in a hotel. read more

Kiss that security deposit goodbye. They will charge you for everything they can come up with at the end. But don't bother disputing. What they say goes. read more

this company is officially the worst. i was a resident for over 2 years at illinois state university and they have never fixed anything when they say they will and when i asked them. they are very unorganized and do not care about their residents and only money. do not sign with them ever. illinois state students, choose young america please and save yourselves from a horrible experience like i had. i would love to see first site go out of business because they deserve it. worst service and employees ever. a man named ulysses is a manager there and is the worst manager and has given me nothing but trouble since he, himself as a manager, does not know anything and has given me a lot of false information. they all deserve to lose their jobs and business and live in misery. read more

Do not rent from this company, bad experience with my daughter and end of year lease, took her deposit made stuff up about why not giving back. Lease ended before last day of school, last day of school Friday and wanted her out Thursday. Would not give her to Saturday to move into new apartment, they are Aaaaaaholes. Do not rent from them!!! read more

I have rented from three different companies while attending ISU and first site is by far the worst. They waited a full month to fix my heat in the winter (my apartment was at a consistent 40 degrees) and they charged everybody in my complex halfway through the year for preexisting issues. Their employees steal when in apartments and the owners are thieves when your lease is up. STAY AWAY read more

DO NOT RENT WITH FIRST SITE!!! They will screw you up!!!! They are the most friendly staff only till you rent with them. By the time you plan to move out, make sure you have saved enough money to pay their extra heavy fines. They will just entice you with a bit lower rates. After you move out, you will realise that you have paid atleast a 100 bucks more per month on an average, apart from your security deposit. They charge you for all the mess made by you and not made by you. They charge you for every bit of dust they see with the help of their torch light during your move out inspection. Their inspection rules are so tactically framed that you cannot escape fines. No matter how much thoroughly you clean, their inspection staff have xray eyes to trace out invisible dots and bits of dust. I was personally present during the move out inspection and was so shocked to see how thoroughly they examine the whole apartment. I had this worst experience with them twice and finally decided to post this. I heard the same kind of bad experience with my friends who rented with them. read more

If you hate bedbugs, bad service, and corporate double-speak, stay far far away from First Site. We lived at Fairway Knolls for 2 months shy of 4 years (that's 3 years and 10 months). Our first year there was great, because we had a great leasing agent that looked out for us. However, he left about a year after we first moved in, and from then on everyone in the office was either rude, incompetent, or both. There's not nearly enough room to list all the ways we had a bad experience with First Site, so I'll stick with highlights. Our first year there we nearly died of carbon monoxide poisoning. This was after we called maintenance because our detector was going off, and they told us "it's impossible for you to have a carbon monoxide leak because all of your appliances are electric." Turns out the building's hot-water heater was leaking gas directly into our bedroom. They only listened after we called the fire department and they confirmed that our apartment had deadly levels of CO. Fast forward a bit, and we had electrical problems. Our power would go out in the whole apartment at the same time every day. We called maintenance about it several times, and it took them weeks before they finally got a professional electrician to look at the problem. He fixed it, but during that time we lost several documents on our computer because of a loss of power, some of which were for school. The final straw for us happened in August of 2013. We found bed-bugs in our apartment. We panicked-ly called maintenance, who called their pest control guys (Liberty Pest Control). The pest guys were very nice and worked with us in a respectful and professional way. They told us it could take as many as 6 treatments to eliminate the bed-bugs, as long as we cooperated by following the procedures before-hand every time (which included vacuuming every square inch of the apartment, washing and drying EVERYTHING, and moving ALL the furniture to the middle of the room so they could get to the wall). We complied every time. First Site, however, massively screwed up the whole thing by scheduling the sprays without giving us notice. This was problematic because we had a dog (which was in our file), and the sprays could make her sick or worse. We had to send the pest control people away twice. We finally took over the scheduling ourselves when it became clear that First Site was not going to consult us regardless of our complaints. 6 months later the problem was still there. We asked the pest control people why this was, and they admitted to us that First Site was only paying for the bare-minimum procedures, rather than what Liberty Pest Control was recommending. At this point we asked First Site management to let us out of our lease, which was set to expire in June. We couldn't handle living with bugs crawling on us at night and leaving itchy bites anymore. This process was a complete nightmare, the manager was very unprofessional and uncooperative. At one point he told us "if I let everyone out of their lease who had a pest issue..." (he trailed off and didn't finish his thought... I think you can fill in the blanks). I wonder how he'd feel about that if he had to live with bed-bugs for half a year? He finally agreed to let us out of the lease if the next spray did nothing. It didn't. He agreed to let us mutually rescind our lease, but only after paying another month's worth of rent through March (thanks for that, very classy). Afterwards we had to pay almost $400 to American Pest Control (a great company by the way) to put ALL of our furniture and belongings in a heat-treatment chamber so that we didn't take the suckers to our new apartment. This was completely out of pocket for us. Finally, rather than give us our $250 security deposit back, they tried to bill us $175 for a trumped up list of "repairs." It took 4 months of appeals before they finally agreed to give us $70. First Site is a terrible company that treated us like chattel. They had little regard for proper hygenic standards, and they only paid the bare-minimum that the law required to alleviate our many problems. Would not recommend First Site to my worst enemy. read more

I would give them zero stars if possible. Renting from First Site has been a nightmare from hell. If you're reading this and have yet to get sucked into signing a lease with these slum lords, DO NOT do it! First Site does JOINT leases, which means if you are given a random roommate or do not know your roommate well, they immediately become your responsibility (as if college students don't have enough on their plate)... If they do not pay their fair share of the rent, it falls on you. First Site delayed my move in by three months and left harassing text messages and voicemails (mainly from Ulises) because the person who was supposed to live with me did not pay their portion of the rent. I had paid in full for those three months ($800/month) and still was not given access to the unit. I ended up having to take out additional student loans to cover the other person's unpaid rent just to avoid losing the apartment. I attempted to break the lease with them, but they threatened to charge me additional expenses ON TOP OF keeping my three months rent payments that I had paid for no access to an apartment. I was stuck finding a subleaser for the person who did not pay their rent. I finally moved in and the apartment was far from clean. They claimed they had a professional cleaning company clean the unit but that was a lie. There was all kinds of garbage and dirt in my unit upon gaining access. This apartment is $800/month and they did not even take the time to have it cleaned for new tenants. I called and emailed multiple times and was ignored. They offered to send the cleaning company back out but never followed through. I'm sure I'll be hit with huge cleaning fees when I move out which is unfair considering I wasn't given a clean unit to begin with. Most recently, First Site decided to TEXT me that my roommate and I were being EVICTED because she supposedly hadn't paid her portion of rent. I had no prior notice and was never given an email or phone call from anyone. My apartment is immaculate, clean and I am a good, paying tenant. They make you sign a joint lease but don't even let you know if your roommate hasn't paid until it's too late. There's no way for me to access my roommate's account and see if she's paid so I was shocked to receive a text message that I was being evicted the same day they planned to do said eviction. I called and the manager I spoke to could care less. I have now paid my entire portion of the lease in full and was told if my roommate did not pay by 5pm then I would have no place to live and finish out my last school year. I was not given any alternative. I called my roommate and come to find out her mom had paid days ago, and this was the second time First Site had LIED and told them they hadn't paid. I called First Site back immediately and suspiciously enough, the new guy I spoke to immediately told me that my roommate's portion of rent had been paid in full. So basically they harassed us and told me I was being evicted via text message for NO REASON. In sum, the slum lords at First Site have no empathy and show no human compassion when dealing with tenants. They are EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL. Their only concern is making a profit and finding new ways to screw over young, naive college students... and from my experiences with them, it is evident that they thoroughly enjoy doing so. They also give college students incentives for writing FAKE REVIEWS for them. I've been offered the option to cut the line at Pub Wednesday if I simply write a good review for them on Google. They offer this and many other incentives to any and all students who write them a good review, regardless of whether or not they have ever been tenants of First Site. PSA: Enrolled ISU students have access to a FREE student attorney on campus who helps students review and understand leases BEFORE they sign them. Take my advice and contact him before you ever go through the nightmare of being a tenant of First Site!!!!! read more

I am an adult who has lived in 4 different apartment complexes in the last 5 years due to my job moving me around. Apartment quality varied from newer facilities to older facilities. I have never had such a distasteful experience as I have with First Site. The first call I made was to maintenance when I moved in. I am on the ground floor and my sink was bubbling up suds and food particles without any provocation from me. In addition, the thermostat was not working or displaying the current temperature of the room. Maintenance came, snaked the drain and told me that nothing could be done about the sink. That's just the way it is, they said. They installed an older, analog version of the thermostat that displayed the temperature of the room, but was not as accurate as a working digital model. Fine, I can deal with some suds bubbling up once in a while and an analog thermostat. Little did I know this was just the beginning. Throughout my stay, I have had many calls regarding maintenance (the sink continually, the toilet bubbling up suds, the smell of marijuana coming into my apartment from an unknown source, the noise of my upstairs neighbors at typical sleeping hours, my oven emitting 90 degree heat when in the off position, and my apartment resting at 78 degrees in the dead of winter with the heat off and the windows open.) and, although the office reports someone was there or I get a slip indicating that someone came through, very few of these things are fixed or repairable. I've paid less money for better quality apartments. Yes, the stove was replaced, but I had a note on one of my burners that said, "gas escaping, DO NOT USE!" for a week with no communication about when a replacement or fix may occur. Yes, maintenance comes out quickly, but they are ill-equipped to address the issues due to the age and location of the buildings. First Site needs to lower rent prices to reflect the quality of the apartment, or they need to invest in updates to make it a fair monthly payment. My neighbors have a dog upstairs who is frequently heard running, barking, and sliding around the apartment. Dogs make noise and I do not blame the animal. The floors/ceilings provide little to no insulation from sound. I hear my neighbors' conversations, parties, and their disagreements. For a while, they had some device that would produce low tones and vibrations (similar to a sub woofer, but continuous) at random times of day/night. Once, it happened at 4:30am. The vibrations could be felt in my walls and my cats were caused anxiety every time this surprise sound would occur. This has since stopped, but the call I made to First Site was not returned and had nothing to do with the change. The laundry facilities in the complex is sub par. Over the last 6 months, 2 driers in separate buildings have broken and take WEEKS to be fixed. When one of them was fixed, it only blew cold air so that the dollar I spend doesn't fully dry my clothes. I have had to walk 3 buildings over to find a drier that works. Lastly, when I came home one day, there was a bag of 14, 8.5X11 color pictures of dog feces on my door with a letter asking residents to pick up after their dog. I do not own a dog, nor did I report owning one to management. I felt this was a juvenile attempt at communication and should have been handled differently. With all the money I am paying, the complex should analyze the dog feces and accuse the appropriate party(ies). In talking with my neighbors, these things have continued to be problems. Unfortunately, I will be with First Site for the remainder of my lease and potentially into the next year, but I am incredibly displeased with how ineffectively problems are handled and how little management appears to care about their patrons based on their actions. read more

My daughter subleased an apartment with First Site and when she moved out, they supposedly found a number of things wrong with the apartment. She was never notified of the problems and never received a bill for the the extra charge over and above the security deposit. The only time she was notified of any problems is when the management group sent it to their slimy attorney for payment with the additional charge of $50.00 from them. I called and asked why she was never contacted and they said they called a number of times but her voice mail was full and never was able to leave a message even though they had her home address to let her know of the additional charge. This whole organization is looking to screw the students out of money. I would guess only a handful of students ever get their security deposit back. This place screams buyer(renter) beware. I can only hope that anyone who works at this organization and has kids that their kids are taken advantage when they get to college!!! Giving this company even a one star is more than they deserve!!! read more

I have lived with a lot of large leasing companies and First Site has been the worst by far. They are too big to fail and too big to care about their residents. Unfortunately they were one of the only places doing short term leasing when I looked. While I only get to live here from may18-December12 I had pay full months rent for APRIL and December. I live at sugar creek and the tile and carpet are gross, but the shower liner is the worst-mold everywhere. The cable jack was broken when we moved in and first site said WE had to pay for Comcast to come out and look at it so now we just don't get the cable we're paying for. Heat/electric is also included in rent but the building runs on a boiler system which first site said they wouldn't turn on until a week of weather below 40F. I am constantly cold in my own apt. The customer service people who work at the office are very rude, they act like they are doing you a favor when you're just paying renI haven't even mentioned the bugs or the fact that there is 0 free visitor parking. Do not sign with this horrible company. read more

Don't lease from this company. They take your money for what past tenants did to the apartment, laugh in your face, unprofessional, REFUSE to fact check what I was told with who told me and would rather call me a liar. They took pictures and wouldn't provide time stamps, date stamps, or descriptions of what was wrong with them because "that's not how they do business"-Sean. When asked why we weren't allowed to be there when they were taken we were told "we don't need a witness to take photos of our property". Which is true Sean you do not, but it is my money you are trying to take and I would either want the time, date, and description or to be a witness when these are taken. TJ thank you for NEVER answering your phone when we were struggling to get answers. IF they try to get your deposit and try to use these same photos on you do NOT let them take advantage of you as they did to us! I also have more photos, but since Sean told me "not all of the photos in the PDF pertain to our charges" I decided to pick my favorite ones to share. Once you want to get your security deposit back, GOOD LUCK getting a hold of anyone who won't laugh at your or call you a liar (shout out to the lady at the receptionist desk and Sean). read more

Awful. Parents, coach your kids up before they sign a lease, if it's with First Site, you'll be screwed. Over payed a month, and was not even credited a full month's rent on the refund. They decided to charge $125 against deposit and over payment from us (4 roommates X $125!), a cleaning fee of $50, "maintenance needed upon move out" of $29.36, and carpet cleaning of $22.50. We paid an extra payment of $415 but only credited an over payment of rent of $334.44. When I called, I was hung up on. The apartment was a dump. Furniture was shit. These were 4 young ladies who were responsible and clean, not party girls. I'm mad that slum lords are predators of the situation from out-of-towners. I have 7 days to file my protest but had to wait 30+ days to get a response for the over payment of rent. Beware, read more

Had a great experience when I rented from 2005-2008. Decided to rent again when moved back to the area in 2014. Where to begin.... First issue: After moving in the first night, it rained. All the windows leaked. Worst was in the main bedroom. Called immediately about getting it fixed. Was told someone would come out to check on it. A week went by and more rain. No one came. Contacted main office. Finally someone came out to check it after I called again and we (my fiancé and I) were told that it would be replaced. Two weeks go by and I contact main office about progress. No one knew about window and no new window had been ordered for our unit. By this time, the mold was starting to become an issue causing my fiancé to have allergy attacks. Window was finally replaced a month and half after the first call but the area around the window was never repainted. Three years later, when we moved out, we were told it was our fault and they wanted us to fix it. They created the issue, they need to fix it. All windows are still leaking during any rain fall causing all windows to fog up. I'm sure there is mold and structural damage that needs to be fixed in every apartment as every apartment's windows show signs of water damage. Second issue: Building is supposed to be a secure building (key to enter building, separate key for apartment). Tenent's children in lower apartments locked themselves out and destroyed the lock so that it never locked again properly since . Informed main office after incident. Three years later, locked has never been fixed or replaced. Third issue: Tenant agreement states that there are to never be parties in or at apartments. For the past three years, there have been loud parties on weekends resulting in cops being called for noise. Last party was on Memorial Day weekend (2017). I came home from a photo shoot after traveling all day to find the ENTIRE parking lot filled with people. It had to be close to 50-80 people blaring music, parking in only driveway causing a fire hazard. Children running around just asking to be run over and killed by passing cars. Cops called out twice. Party started around 6pm and went until 11:30pm. Informed main office. Never been addressed. Fourth issue: Out toilet in the unit has never worked properly. It requires multiple flushes before all waste is taken care generating gallons of water. Have contacted maintenance multiple time to get resolve. Their resolution was to tell us to use less toilet paper. What? Fifth issue: We were told when initially signing lease that there was no smoking in apartments. People smoke in building hallways and apartments on consistent basis (cigarette and marijuana butts are found littering hallways on a weekly basis) Informed main office. No action ever taken in three years. Get the idea? I have written/printed out all incidents and filled out forms for all incidents which have been handed to a First Site staff member. No actions has ever been taken at any time. On the last compliant I filled, a staff member asked me how I wanted the complaint resolved. My response was for all the incidents to stop. Duh! Office is staffed with college kids/millennials that do not have clue. Management is a joke and have allowed more disrespectful renters to come in just to fill the apartments. We have recently moved out. When our lease came up for renewal, we called immediately and set up an exit walk through one month in advance. Come the day and time of the walk through, no one showed up. I specifically scheduled time off to do this walk through during my work hours. After 30 minutes of waiting for someone, I called the main office and was put on hold for ten minutes. I was told there was no record of the walk though and that they could send someone out until later. I refused to reschedule as they had wasted my time for something that had been scheduled for over a month. Again, they have children "running" their offices. My fiancé stated that she would wait for them as I had to return to my job. We were told that if would be a 30 minute wait. That wait ended up being another hour before someone came to do the walk through. I'm told, just like the reviewer Paul H stated, they nick picked over everything. Claimed that we didn't stream clean the carpet which we did and had to show them the receipt twice. My finance and I both spent hours (two weekends) cleaning the unit which looked hell of a lot better than they way we received it. However, ultimately, we, just like Paul H, will probably not get any our security deposit back (which consists of not only the basic $500 but a non-refundable pet deposit of $350). First Site is well on its way of becoming slum lords and seriously needs to be put out of business. If I receive any bill, the next communication will be from my family lawyer. Thankfully, I have documented all incidents and at this point probably have good case for breach of contract on multiple occasions. read more

Where do I begin with this poor excuse of a "company"? I just finished the move out inspection, and for starters, their inspectors, two middle aged women for reference, had atrocious attitudes and demeanors towards myself and my girlfriend if we asked questions, and they went as far as being petty to close the doors while they were in the rooms to prevent anyone from watching. This is incredibly sketchy and unprofessional and makes me question what damages they're doing to steal more money. I say this because, for example, the blinds were reported as damaged when there was no activity in the room because it was a storage room, so what other damages are they causing? And with that topic, they abused the furniture, shaking and rattling everything, and then have the audacity to say things are damaged. They're damaged because of the employees! And everyone, and I repeat EVERYONE, be warned that FirstSite will rent you a run down unit and then charge you to fix it up even though they rented it to you like that, but they won't fix anything. An office member came in and left a magnet on our fridge, and they were trying to charge us for leaving that on the fridge. Your own worker put it there! And they'll do that for everything. When I moved in, there were dead bugs everywhere, which I had to clean because the office didn't do anything after a month of pressing them. There were stains and scratches on most everything in the apartment from previous tenants that weren't "professionally" cleaned as they call it, and now they have to nerve to try to charge for these marks after they rented it like that. There was a piece of tape on the wall that was painted over from the last time FirstSite claimed they cleaned the unit. That's not cleaning. That's being lazy. On top of all that, there were mice running through the apartment for a whole month, and FirstSite didn't care! So if you like rodent feces and disease on all your belongings, this sounds like the place for you. After this horrendous experience, I'm preparing to fight these criminal charges when the packet comes. The only employee that deserves any mention is Dalton because he was the only one that showed he cared about any of the tenants that he worked with. It's a shame that his work ethic and attitude is cast aside by this catastrophic failure of a company. read more

Worst run organization I have ever encountered in my life. College apartment managers are on par with used car salesmen. Total slim. They are only concerned with getting you signed up. Do not look to them for any assistance or have questions answered in a timely manner. Parents, make sure you look at other options before using First Site. You will not get your security deposit back so do not even think it is possible. read more

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!!!If it were possible that this company could get negative stars they would. First off the only reason this company has any positive reviews is because the owner/Leasing Manager has contests with his employees to get them to get all of their friends to write fake reviews. The one who gets the least amount of fake reviews is in jeopardy of losing their job. I know this because I was an employee theirs for YEARS! I've seen this company do more fake, illegal, and immoral things to people and tenants then any other company in my life. I finally couldn't deal with it anymore and found another job. I used to do their move out inspections and was eventually pulled off of them because they demanded that I write up fake charges on people's inspections. I refused. So they got somebody else to do it that was ok with screwing people over by marking up walls and tearing up flooring, then blaming it on the tenants. The owners are the most disgusting money hungry people there are. They don't care about anybody what so ever. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this company!!! You will regret signing a lease with them! I promise you. This is not me being disgruntled. This is me trying to help anybody looking for an apartment in the future. If you have other questions I would be happy to answer them. This company is BAD BUSINESS!! read more

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY! They will ignore your request for repairs, blame them on you, keep your security deposit and charge outrageous fees for breaking their rules. Customer service is non-existent and if there is an issue they are uncooperative and unreasonable. STAY AWAY! read more

This apartment agency is horrible. they are so rude to you when you come in half the time do not know that they are doing. The management is not friendly and are unwilling to help at all. I live above a bar and they did not tell us it was going in and my floors vibrate and when I went to First site about this issue they did not care and would not do anything!!! NO NOT RENT FORM THEM!!!!!!! read more

First Site is the absolute worst. They do not answer their phones. They charge a ridiculous amount of money to send maintenance out to flip a switch on the thermostat. When security is called to check on neighbors who are blaring their music until 4am on a Wednesday night, security has been seen to walk up to the apartment and then walk right away. They will say they'll let you move in one day when in fact you cannot move in until a month later. My room is infested with ants coming from the apartment next door and the whole house has a million lady bugs and spiders everywhere. The sinks continually leak and the walls are paper thin. They will tell you that you can get a discount on rent every month if you sign by a certain date and then they will still charge you the regular price no matter what. DO NOT SIGN WITH FIRST SITE. I have regretted signing with them since the day after I signed. read more

Please take the time to read this, it's long but it could save you a lot of money and a lot of time. If I could give First Site negative stars, I would. Giving them a one star is being very very generous. This company is the absolute worst leasing company to deal with. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM! They are full of lies and are the most disrespectful people I have ever encountered. Our leasing consultant had no idea what he was talking about; he told us multiple things that have come back as incorrect and have bitten us in the butt instead. Every single person that works there is rude. I haven't had one good experience with them. For example: 1. You are to give a $200 deposit at the beginning of your leasing agreement that is SUPPOSED to be given back to you at the end of the year. We specifically asked MULTIPLE employees if this deposit would be taken out of our accounts right now. They all said absolutely not, the money would ONLY be taken out of our accounts IF we owed them money for damages at the end of the year. The next day we realized the money was taken out of our accounts, we called and confronted them and they shrugged it off and called it a "misunderstanding" on our part. 2. Our leasing consultant told us that the door in our garage led straight to a wall and said we didn't have a basement. He also told us our house had enough parking for all three of us living there. We decided to talk to the girls currently living in the house we are renting next year and they told us that 1. the door actually leads to a basement with a washer and dryer and 2. there is only parking available for 2 cars, and if the third is found parked in the drive way you will be fined. 3. We signed our lease in December and obviously a lot happens in a college student's life and not all details are fully remembered by April. We haven't heard one thing from First Site since we've signed the lease, no emails have been sent to us to remind us of important dates, nothing. April 5 comes around and we get a text message at 8:30PM telling us our rent is due at 10PM and if we don't pay we will be fined $50. The office was already closed (they always leave you voicemails 2 minutes before they close with sketchy information and then never return your voicemails) by this time and we were super confused as to why this was the first time since December we were being told to pay our rent. Rent is actually due at the first of everything month and we had not heard one thing from them about our rent, how to go about paying our rent, etc. So getting a text message three hours before our rent was due... five days after the actual due date was really appreciative. Not even kidding, thumbs down to first site. If I could do anything to get them put out of business I would. They take advantage of college students, they are ridiculously rude and inconsiderate, they are terrible at communication. FIRST SITE SUCKS, period. read more

Can I give NO STARS?? Do yourself a favor and do NOT go with First Site as your Realty Co. Had a way better experience with Young America Everything was great upon securing the apartment last Spring but upon move out it was very rushed. They need a better plan than having you move out on graduation day. They had an attitude on the get go when I called about working with them. We had family come from out of town for graduation and had some plans and they would not work with my student or even when I called for the move out time. The place was left immaculate as my student her roommate and a team of family (maybe 6 if us) cleaned the place top to bottom. The only thing was a mark from a sticky tack hanger that her roommates dad promptly went to ace bought spackel and painted it. All they have to do is paint this place and it was move in ready and what they did on move out day (where I was not there) is document a bunch of stuff that was normal wear and tear and mind you I don't think anything was major. They kept the security deposit and charged us...UNBELIEVABLE RACKET! Well, all I can say is be forewarned. It doesn't matter if you take pictures upon move in, they still went through a list that was "made up" read more

Do not rent from First Site! My daughter rented an apartment above Buffalo Wild Wings because it was new and close to campus. There was supposed to be video installed in the hallways along with locked entrances for security. The doors were always broken so several times there were drunk or homeless people sleeping in the stairwells. People would vomit in the hallways, play basketball at all hours of the night upstairs so forget about sleep, and there was always a smell of marijuana from all of the smokers. Do not bother to complain they will just threaten to charge the entire complex rather than investigating who is causing the problem. You can be the perfect tenant and still get charged for other renters damage. Broken door-you get charged, another apartment leaves a trash bag in the hall-you get charged. Drunks vomit in the hallway-everyone gets charged. Someone punches a hole in the wall in the hallway-everyone gets charged. Cannot even prove it was tenants because anyone can come in the broken doors! Last but not least, she finally got out by subletting her apartment. She paid the $225 fee which still does not release her of responsibility and now first site will not accept the rent payment from the new tenant. My daughter has called every day this week with no answer. Hmmmm trying to get a late charge maybe! Do yourself a favor and find another company to rent from. There are many options in the Normal area! read more

First site is the absolute worst reality place in Illinois. All they do is lie to you, take money from you, and give you a shit apartment. Personally, I'd rather be homeless then ever associate with a first site apartment ever again. Every single worker there is a complete fucking idiot. They gave us a 2 hour notice that our apartment was going to be evicted out of nowhere. First site has people walk into your apartment unannounced almost every single week, our apartment has the TV on the wrong side of the wall.... took them nearly 3 months to come clean my apartment and even after that they somehow "didn't notice" a huge fucking hole in our bathroom wall. If it was possible to give first site negative stars I would without a doubt. DO NOT give a single dollar to first site they are complete scumbags and scam each and every one of their tenants. If you're thinking about getting an apartment from first site, you're better off putting your money through a paper shredder you'll get more use to it of it that way. read more

I want to be absolutely honest, short, and to the point. My experience started off great during orientation but quickly went downhill. The staff there gave me the vibe of money first, customer service last. We clearly documented all of the flaws in our apartment and kept in the same shape as it was when we moved in. Of course, we didn't get our security deposit back even though we took all the steps necessary to do so. That's only the start of things though. The maintenance team reminded me of a 5-year-old with a hammer. I had better luck fixing things myself because their redneck fixes didn't do the trick. They charge you for repairs that aren't tenant related. It was me and my roommate who were very low key and didn't cause any ruckus. Please don't be fooled by the nice ladies and office. They are money thirsty, by all means, necessary avoid First Site. I can give you list of reasons not stay with them. read more

The layout and apartment isn't bad at the fairway location. The heat did break and stop working 3 times this winter and took about 2-4 days to get it fixed again during the freezing temperatures of this winter. The maintenance staff is luck of draw. Most seem nice, there is one inappropriate male who works there, a couple of the guys are really lazy and half ass repairs, and the girl answering the phone isn't helpful or friendly at all. The neighbors are loud and party in the parking lot and let their kids run the flights of stairs for hours at night. Dogs bark like crazy 24/7 in the building as well. Only one washer and dryer work and you better hope no one latched the door or your clothes are locked in there till someone decides to show up and unlock it. They lie about services they provide and then bill you and expect the full payment in 2 days and speak to you with no respect. The manager Jimmy is so full of himself and thinks he can do no wrong and everyone loves him. He is one of the worst people I've ever had to do business with. The whole office if filled with people who have terrible customer service and only care about getting your money honestly. I only got back 64 dollars from a 500 dollar deposit because they had to "clean" after my mom and I scrubbed the place down from only living in it for 9 months. They also make you professionally shampoo the carpets when leaving, but if it's not to their standards they bill you to do it again (hince why I only got 64 dollars back after spending 2 hours on the carpets after renting a machine) I've definitely had worse, but if you are making this a long time move, I wouldn't suggest it. I came here temporarily and I'm so thankful it's that. Couldn't handle it more than a year. read more