If you are a property owner trying to decide whether it is worth it or not to rent your house or condo out to a travel nurse and are wondering how much can you make renting to traveling nurses, then keep reading.
As a career travel nurse, I can tell you that there is a golden rule that all travel nurses follow when deciding how much to pay for rent during our travel nurse assignment.
If you are wondering how much to pay for rent as a travel nurse, read that post for more info.
And no, it’s not the amount of our housing stipend.
The golden rule is that we use one week of take-home pay to set aside for rent.
And since we are usually searching for our short-term rental before we arrive at our new destination, that amount gives us a good idea of what our budget will be when doing our housing search.
Below is everything you need to know about renting to travel nurses, including advantages, disadvantages, things we look for in a listing, and where to post your listing.
How Much Can You Make Renting To Traveling Nurses?
When it comes to deciding a budget for how much to spend on rent, travel nurses follow the one-week rule: we take the amount earned in one week of work and use it for our monthly rent. This guideline helps property owners estimate potential rental income from travel nurses, offering a reliable framework for setting competitive yet fair rental prices
To see how much rent you can charge, it’s a good idea to see what the average travel nurse pay in your area is.
To do this, I recommend typing “travel nurse pay [city]” into Google and see what comes up.
For example, if you live in Chicago, just type “travel nurse pay Chicago” into Google and you will get this:
You’ll notice that the number that comes up is a weekly pay amount.
This is the amount we use as a guide when looking for a rental.
So if I were renting in Chicago, I would put my budget between $2000 and $2500 for housing.
Of course, take into account what the average rent is in your area in case the pay amount is higher or lower than normal.
What To Know Before Renting To Traveling Nurses
Before you make the leap to rent to traveling nurses, there are some things you should first consider.
Renting A Room Vs. The Whole Unit
Personally, I always get my own place.
I work hard, I work nights, and I don’t want to be bothered by roommates.
If you can swing it, definitely rent out your whole unit.
You will bring in more rent, and your tenant will be happy.
Utilities
We travel nurses do not want to have to worry about setting up utilities — especially since we are only in town for 3-4 months.
If I see that I have to get my own internet, that is a hard pass for me.
I want everything to be ready to go and all utilities included in the rent.
Travel nurses understand this and they expect the rent to be higher because of this.
Pets
Travel nursing gets lonely.
And because of this, a lot of us have pets that travel with us.
Sometimes it’s cats, and sometimes it’s dogs.
If you’re worried about your furniture or any mess that may be made, understand that this isn’t our first rodeo and we have our pets well-trained to be in other people’s houses.
We are also ok if you include a non-refundable pet fee in the lease.
I mostly see these go for $200-$300 and I am fine with the one-time payment.
Amenities
I work my ass off as an RN.
I also miss all of my nice amenities from home.
Do us (and yourself) a favor, and invest in some good amenities — check out my best travel nurse design tips.
The first thing I look for when looking at a listing is how modern and cute it is.
If the place is dark with lots of dark wood and old linens, I’m gonna keep looking somewhere else.
Invest in making your space nice — trust me. It will pay off.
The Advantages Of Renting To Travel Nurses
Renting to travel nurses is unlike anything else.
We aren’t long-term, yet we stay longer than a vacation renter.
They’re Trusted
People trust nurses, and for good reason.
Not anyone can become a nurse. It is very difficult and you must have some brains and rational thinking built in.
People love renting to us.
We understand hard work and we recognize the importance of taking care of things that aren’t our own.
We also get drug-tested at the start of every new job, so you won’t have to worry about that aspect, either.
They’re Clean And Organized
We can’t help but be Type-A.
Before becoming a nurse, I was a hardcore type-b.
But after nursing school, I have borderline OCD about cleaning and organizing.
You can rest assured that your home is safe with us.
They Can Afford The Rent
It’s no secret that travel nurses make decent money (even though the pay has decreased A TON since COVID-19).
The good thing for you though is that we are on a contract and we are at this job because they are short-staffed.
We are literally there to fill in the gaps.
This means we are guaranteed to have a consistent paycheck, which includes our travel nurse housing stipend.
If you don’t know, the housing stipend is a tax-free payment that we get every week as a part of our total paycheck to help us with housing while we are away from home.
The Disadvantages Of Renting To Travel Nurses
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
There are some disadvantages to renting to us — but they’re not that bad.
Short-Term Lease
The length of a travel nurse contract typically lasts 13 weeks.
This means we need a lease agreement for a fully furnished rental for about 4 months on average.
Is there a chance that we will extend our contract and be able to stay longer?
Yes.
But that doesn’t mean we can agree to a long-term lease in the beginning.
Typically, we will agree to the original lease terms and then go to a month-to-month agreement afterward if we decide to stay longer.
Unpredictable Contracts
Things happen.
Life happens.
We might break our leg and then be unable to finish our contract.
We might hate the facility because it isn’t safe for us or the patients and decide that it’s not worth risking our nursing license over and decide to cancel the contract.
Or the facility might decide that we aren’t a good fit for them and cancel our assignment.
The reality is this: we are at-will employees and both us and the facility have the right to terminate the contract at any time for any reason.
What this means for you is that your travel nurse tenant might have to unexpectedly leave town and break the lease.
Please understand that this isn’t ideal for anyone.
You are now having to find a new tenant, but we are having to move, find a new job, and find a new place to live, and all without warning.
I highly recommend you include an early lease termination clause in your housing lease to make this easier for everyone.
The good thing is that this is rare so you probably shouldn’t worry about it happening to you.
Lots Of Competition
Between Furnished Finders, Airbnb, VRBO, and tons more short-term/vacation rental sites, you have a lot of competition.
It’s no secret that renting to travel nurses can be an excellent investment.
Modernize the decor, make it really light and bright, check out other listings, and see how they decorate and what amenities they provide.
Furnished Finders is the best travel nurse housing website to post on, but there are other sites to consider as well.
How To Make Your Property Attractive To Travel Nurses
Seeing as how our housing options are usually plentiful, here are some travel nurse housing design tips you can do to make your property stand out.
Amenities we look for:
- Dishwasher
- In-unit laundry
- Coffee maker (Keurig is best)
- Air-fryer
- ALL of the cooking/baking wares
- A comfortable couch
- A queen or king-sized bed
- A large TV (none of that 30″ stuff)
- Designated parking
- Fluffy towels
- Modern, light and bright decor
For a more exhaustive list, check out my Amazon store.
Also, pay for professional cleaners and hire someone to take professional photos for the listing, or learn how to take travel nurse housing listing photos yourself.
Trust me, professional photos are a great investment.
Plus, you do them once and you’re done.
And don’t be alarmed if the candidate asks for a Facetime walk-through.
Renting site-unseen is stressful enough. And with how many scams there are out there, it’s understandable that we want to make sure the place actually exists and looks like the pictures.
Where To List Your Rental Property
As I said above, Furnished Finders is the #1 website travel nurses use to look for short-term housing.
Here are some other sites that are popular and that I recommend my readers use:
- Airbnb
- VRBO
- Zillow
- Trulia
- Corporate Housing By Owner
- HomeAway
- Facebook Travel Nurse Housing groups
Add your professional photos and decide if you want to allow pets or not.
Conclusion
Hopefully this answers your question, “How much can you make renting to traveling nurses in 2024?”.
If you’re considering renting out your house or apartment to travel nurses, I recommend taking a look at the local travel nurse rates to see what they’re paying.
The pay listed is usually one week’s pay, which is the amount we use when deciding how much we should budget for rent.
Between using this number and seeing what the average rental rates are in your area, you should be able to get a good idea of how much you could make renting to a travel nurse.
Also be sure to keep in mind the advantages, disadvantages, and amenities when making your decision to rent or not.
If you modernize the property and provide nice amenities, there should be no issue raising the rent some. For us travel nurses who prefer the nicer things, you can be sure we are willing to pay a little extra.
If you have any other questions on the issue or would like me to take a look at your listing, I would love to give you my advice!
Just leave a comment below or shoot me an email at ashly@ashlyjean.com and I will get back to you ASAP.
FAQ
How much should I spend on housing as a travel nurse?
Travel nurses use the one-week rule. They use one week’s worth of pay to cover one month’s rent. We use the pay as a guide when budgeting for our upcoming assignment.
Is travel nursing housing legit?
The answer to this question depends on what website you use. If you are using Furnished Finder or Airbnb and other trusted sites, then yes, travel nurse housing is legit. There are many property owners out there looking to rent their furnished homes specifically to travel nurses.
How To make money renting to traveling nurses?
Fully furnish the home, include desirable amenities, have utilities included, list the property on Furnished Finder with professional photos and a detailed description, and be responsive when someone inquires about the place.
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