What You Should Know About Renting to Travel Nurses

There’s a lot of misconceptions around renting to travel nurses (especially since the days of COVID contracts) and as a travel nurse of 7 years, I want to clear up any misconceptions plus give you tips and advice on how you can be the best landlord and make your property appealing to travel nurses.  Below you’ll find tips and advice, what to expect when you rent to a travel nurse, what travel nurses wish that landlords knew, and what your place should have if you want to be considered, “travel nurse friendly”.

 

Is Renting to Travel Nurses a Good Idea?

For starters, if you’re wondering whether or not renting to travel nurses is a good idea, I would say absolutely, yes.  Although I’m a bit biased, travel nurses are generally very responsible and trustworthy people (look at our profession after all), and you can rent to us for a longer period of time – meaning less turnover.  Plus, there are over 1.7 million travel nurses in the United States as of 2023, so there’s a lot of opportunity for rental.

 

Pros to Renting to Travel Nurses

Here are some pros to renting to travel nurses…

• Long move-in period (less turnover)
• Trustworthy
• Passive income

 

Cons to Renting to Travel Nurses

Here are some cons to renting to travel nurses…

• Potential for contract cancellation
• Might work night shift (if you’re renting a room in your home this means you’ll need to be quiet during the day)
• Work 3 days/week (if you’re renting a room in your home this means he/she will be off 4 days/week)

 

How Much Money Can You Make Renting to Travel Nurses?

I don’t think that renting to travel nurses for the money is a good enough reason to rent to travel nurses.  First off, since COVID contracts, landlords have increased their rental prices an astonishing amount.  While that was fine for a while, when travel nurses were making $10,000 a week, the market has returned to normal and it’s no longer acceptable to rent out your tiny studio apartment for $3,000/month.  So if you’re thinking, “travel nurses make a lot of money, I’ll rent to them and jack up my rental prices”… don’t do it.  Also, travel nurses are legally required to duplicate expenses and are also required to pay rent in their home state.  That means that they are already paying rent at home, without including what they are paying you.

How much a travel nurse makes varies based on what unit they are working on, what time of the year it is, what city you’re in, etc.  There are so many factors that go into your housing stipend and your pay as a whole that I can’t tell you an exact number on how much you can list your property for.

 

How Much do Traveling Nurses Pay for Rent?

Personally, I allot for less than one week of pay/month on rent.  (Travel nurses get paid weekly so we get four paychecks in one month).  My highest paid contract ever was in Seattle, where I made $3,000/week.  So in Seattle I made sure to look for a property that cost < $3,000/month.  My lowest paid contract was in Omaha, where I made $1,300/week.  So in Omaha I made sure to look for a property that cost < $1,300/month.  Hopefully this gives you a better idea and understanding of what travel nurses are willing to pay for rent.  And if you’re only renting a room or your space doesn’t come fully furnished… you’ll need to slash your prices even more.

Also, depending on where you advertise your property, you have to consider that that platform might charge fees that are passed on to the renter.  For one, Airbnb charges astronomical service fees that then make the cost of your rental almost twice the price in some cases – so you might want to consider that when advertising your place (more on that below).

 

What You Should Know About Contract Cancellation

The most frustrating thing about travel nursing is that the hospital is allowed to cancel your contract at any time, without notice.  And it’s usually because patient population dropped, or maybe they’ve hired too many travelers; but generally the nurse in this scenario did nothing wrong.

When I’m looking for housing as a travel nurse, the first thing I ask about is contract cancellation.  If a host will not be flexible with me on this I absolutely will not rent from them.  There’s too much money on the line to move in and pay rent, only to be cancelled two weeks later.  Plus, you need to understand that nurse has paid to get to the assignment, done the work of moving, and now doesn’t have a job and has zero income.  And while I understand this also puts you, the host, in an uncomfortable and crappy situation I urge you to create a policy that is flexible and that you feel comfortable with.  Put yourself in that travelers shoes – if their contract was cancelled, they’ve already lost enough – don’t make them pay rent on top of that with zero income.

And for the record, I was a travel nurse for seven years and my contract was only cancelled one time, two-weeks before my move out date.  So it isn’t necessarily common, but it does happen.  And I was more than grateful for my landlord being flexible and refunding me my last two-weeks of rent.

 

If you want to understand contract cancellation better, don’t miss:

•  What to do if Your Travel Nurse Contract Gets Cancelled

 

Amenities to Include in Your Rental for Travel Nurses

Speaking from experience, one of the most frustrating things about moving into a new place as a travel nurse is being under the impression that it’s fully furnished, when it isn’t.  Simple things like making sure your home has a can opener, salt and pepper shakers, enough toilet paper for the first week, really means a lot.  And truthfully, it isn’t that difficult or expensive to include these things in your home.  Below you’ll find a list of amenities I’d suggest having on hand – and from experience, most of these things are things that landlords don’t have upon move in.  (And remember, you don’t need to have enough laundry detergent to last the entire stay, but it’s really nice to have on hand the first week or two while we’re getting our bearings and figuring things out).

• Blackout curtains – If a traveler is moving into a bedroom with big windows or a lot of light, it will go a LONG ways if you can ensure that you have blackout curtains on hand for those working the night shift (before purchasing, make sure to get a rod if needed/you’re choosing the right size curtains)
• Can opener
• Salt & pepper shaker
• Olive oil
• Tupperware
• Muffin tin
• Baking pan
• Cookie sheet
• Crock-pot
• Coffee pot/Keurig (brownie points if its Nespresso!)
• Mixing bowls
• Measuring utensils
• Measuring glass
• Cutting board
• Knife (sharp enough to cut through a sweet potato – not a dull knife – sharpen them each time someone moves out!)
• Dish soap
• Sponges
• Paper towels
• Toilet paper
• Laundry detergent
• In-unit washer/dryer

 

Pro tip:  If you really want to go above and beyond, make sure that the sheets are new (not scratchy) and that there are sufficient pillows on the bed!  You wouldn’t like to sleep on uncomfortable sheets with crappy pillows for 3 months, so don’t make us.

 

Top Cities for Travel Nurses

in 2023, the most popular cities for travel nurses were Los Angeles, Seattle, Honolulu, St. Louis, Chicago, Austin, Miami, Atlanta, and New York City.  If you have a property you want to rent and you don’t live in one of these cities, it doesn’t mean that you can’t rent out your place to travel nurses, it just means your city is less in demand than these top cities.

 

Where to List Your Rental Property

If your goal is to make your property travel nurse friendly, then you need to list your property on travel nurse friendly sites.  While sites like Airbnb are good to advertise on, these sites charge astronomical service fees that get passed onto the renter and will probably make your property less desirable because of the price.  Here are some places that I recommend advertising on…

• Facebook – On Facebook, look up “Travel Nurse Housing X City” and join that city to advertise your property
• Furnished Finder – A traveling healthcare professional friendly website
• Passports and Preemies – If you’re interested in listing your property on my website, please email passportsandpreemies@gmail.com with the subject line “Rental Property for Travel Nurses in X” (X = city)

 

Read more:

• The Best Travel Nurse Housing Sites

 

Tips for Landlords Renting to Travel Nurses

Here are my top tips for renting to travel nurses…

• Price your rental affordably – Especially when you’re starting out and don’t have any reviews yet, make sure that your rental property is priced fairly.  Do some research in the area, consider offering a discount for “long-term” stays (i.e. if you stay one month you receive a discount of X), and remember – the point is to fill the property first, make profit later
• List your rental property on travel nurse friendly websites (also, in the title of your rental mention “Perfect for Travel Nurses” or something of the sort)
• Make sure house rules are clear and expectations are set
• Provide reviews – Once a traveler moves out, request that they write you a review so that you can share with the next travel nurse moving in.  You could also go as far as to ask the previous tenant if they are okay with you providing their information so your next tenant can contact them about questions.
• Include utilities in rental prices
• Be flexible on move-in/move-out times
• Be flexible on your cancellation policy
• Offer a monthly cleaning service – You can decide whether or not you want to charge for this, but I think it’s nice to have the option to have someone come and clean the apartment
• Go above and beyond!  Leaving a simple piece of paper for the best things to see and do in the area, restaurants to eat at, etc means the world to us!  We’re going to be in the city for 3-months, we want it to feel like home

 

Why Aren’t Travel Nurses Renting from You?

If you’re reading this and you’ve had your property listed for a while and claim it to be “travel nurse friendly”, there could be a plethora of reasons nurses aren’t renting from you.  Here are some things to consider…

• You’re not advertising in the right places
• You’re charging too much money
• Non-flexible cancellation policy/requirement to pay rent up-front along with security deposit, etc
• You don’t have flexible “rules”
• You don’t have good photos of your place (maybe its hard to get a sense of what your property will be like; try to post photos that will allow a traveler to envision themselves staying at your property)
• Bad reviews/no reviews
• The bed is shitty (honestly, the amount of awful beds I see as a travel nurse both when I move in somewhere and when I’m looking for somewhere to rent is disheartening.  Remember – we will probably be staying at your place for around 3-months… we want somewhere comfortable to sleep)

 

What Travel Nurses Want Landlords to Know

I’ve polled my audience, and here are direct quotes of what other travel nurses wish landlords knew…

• “Landlords should stay in their ‘fully-furnished’ for 7-10 days to see if it truly is comfortable.  They might have second thoughts on 20-year old mattress, 2 old rusty pans, and the Amazon couch…” – Krystal Rae
• “The hospital can cancel us at any time so a monthly lease is much preferable to a 90-day minimum lease…” –Syd Cordero
• “We are not getting COVID pay anymore.  Nobody wants to pay $3,000 for a crappy studio…”
• “We want a kitchen and decent bedding that isn’t old and scratchy…”
• “We have to duplicate expenses we can’t afford these crazy expensive rents…”
• “Staying for months is not the same as a weekend.  We need clothes drawers and a closet please…”
• “First/last/security and brokers fee is too much for our short term leases…”
• “90 day minimum leases are NOT ideal unless they come with the freedom to leave…”
• “We already did a background check to get the contract.  Not willing to do multiple…”
• “What fully furnished actually means; I don’t want to buy a can opener, a cutting board, etc…”
• “Rates aren’t as good as they used to be, we have to pay for a taxed home too…”
• “They should have blackout curtains on hand for night shifters…”
• “We don’t get paid what they think we do…”
• “I can’t extend my lease until I have my extension in hand…”
• “We can get cancelled at anytime and it’s unlikely that we find a job in the same area right away…”
• “Contracts get cancelled!  It’s not me ‘changing my mind’…”
• “Night shifters want to opt out of the mandatory morning maid service…”
• “Please be flexible if we get cancelled!  Monthly rent is preferable…”
• “We are the BEST renters, hardly home, professional, and pay on time…”
• “We are doubling our expenses…”
• “Just because I don’t have rental references doesn’t mean you shouldn’t rent to me…”

 

 

 

If you’re a landlord considering whether or not to rent to travel nurses, I hope that this helps!  If you have any questions about renting to travel nurses, let me know in a comment below.

 

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