Why Invest in Travel Nurse Housing & How to Start

If you’ve thought about investing in travel nurse housing in 2023, here’s what you should consider before putting your plan into action.

While this is not the first strategy that comes to the mind of real estate investors, it is a viable way to generate rental income by catering to the needs of a specific tenant group. Nevertheless, renting out to traveling nurses comes with its own pros and cons as well as requirements, so you need to know how to do it before jumping in.

Table of Contents

1. What Is a Travel Nurse?
2. Types of Travel Nurse Housing Options
3. Types of Properties Suitable for Travel Nurses
4. The Pros and Cons of Investing in Traveling Nurses Housing
5. Is Travel Nurse Housing a Smart Investment in 2023?
6. Travel Nurse Housing Sites
7. How to Make Your Property Attractive to Travel Nurses

In this article, we’ll discuss what housing for travel nurses is and what it requires from investors. Our focus will be on how it is similar to and different from the short and long term rental strategies. We will then help you decide if this is the right approach for you by discussing the pros and cons. We’ll also give you actionable tips on how to succeed with this type of investment should you decide to move forward.

Let’s dive in!

What Is a Travel Nurse?

A travel nurse is a trained and skilled medical professional who takes temporary nursing positions in various locations based on demand. They usually work for staffing agencies that assign them to hospitals, clinics, and organizations urgently needing more nursing personnel due to a public health emergency. Travel nurses can stay between a few weeks and a few years.

Interestingly enough, this is not a new profession though it’s been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The concept of travel nurses goes back to its introduction in the 1970s. The reason for this was the high census in healthcare, which means that healthcare facilities were understaffed.

Back in the day, a traveling nurse’s job was considered informal. They work as regular hospital employees and must travel to meet patient demands.

The discouraging fact was that many facilities did not provide housing for nurses who had to travel long distances and work a couple of days at a time. That’s where the need for specialized travel nurses’ housing rose and developed into its own real estate investment strategy for many savvy entrepreneurs.

Fast forward to today, and there’s been a slight modification to the job description. Nowadays, travel nurses work under a contract for healthcare agencies that usually arrange their housing. There are easily over 100 medical staffing companies focusing on this.

Recently many nurses are leaving their full-time jobs to pursue temporary employment offering more money and the flexibility to explore different locations.

Common Places Where Travel Nurses Work

• General medical hospitals
• Emergency rooms
• Surgical hospitals
• Community hospitals
• Urgent care facilities
• Rehabilitation centers
• Nursing homes
• Occupational health services
• Non-government organizations

This is just a partial list that can go on and on. Since a traveling nurse is a medical professional who takes up stressful jobs in high-demand areas, they need to find comfortable housing that provides all the amenities despite the temporary status. 

That’s why it’s worth it for investment property owners to consider this strategy, which comes with its own pros and cons. Considering the upward trends, it might be a smart move to convert an existing income property or buy a new rental investment property for sale to cater to the needs of this type of tenant.

In the rest of this article, we’ll help you decide: Is renting to travel nurses a good idea?

Types of Travel Nurse Housing Options

There are two nursing travel housing options:

• Agency-placed housing
• Stipend pay housing

Agency-Placed Housing

The first option involves the help of an agency. A travel nurse can choose to have their housing request handled by a staffing agency. It means that dedicated professionals are responsible to find housing options for the medical staff.

In most cases, agencies tend to develop long term relations with landlords in different markets to secure short or long term housing for traveling nurses. So, new nurses end up at rentals where other nurses have stayed.

Working with such an agency can be an excellent opportunity for a real estate investor specializing in this type of rentals. It means you can have guaranteed demand and renters for years, enjoying stable rental income and return on investment.

Under this option, the staffing agency manages the payments on the landlord’s behalf. Moreover, it covers all expenses, including the monthly rent, utilities (electricity, gas, water, phone, internet, TV, etc.), booking fees (if applicable), and others.

That is the option most travel nurses will go with if they receive a last-minute call and have to move to a location they’ve never been to before.

Tips on Working With Agencies

If you are a real estate investor who wants to do business with nursing agencies, here are some tips that might come in handy:

• A promising start would be to contact some of the major agencies and companies in the area because these businesses are responsible for nearly 50% of the travel arrangements. 
• From there, you can list your property directly with the agency.
• Alternatively, you can also try contacting the staffing offices in hospitals where your property is and inquire about the agencies they’re working with.

The point is, gathering information is of the utmost importance here, just like with any other kind of real estate investment.

Stipend Pay Housing

The second option is relevant for those medical professionals not fond of trusting staffing agencies with their accommodation. Travel nurses who feel that way can opt for a tax-free housing stipend and choose housing on their own. Usually, the stipend is provided by the employer.

Under this scenario, travel nurses find a rental property on their own. The most common way to do that is through specialized sites for travel nurses, which we’ll discuss below. Frequently they have to focus on affordable housing options to cover all living expenses through the stipend and maybe save a bit of it. Nurses need to budget both for the rental rate and utilities.

Tips on Working With Travel Nurses Directly

If you’d like to rent out to this type of tenant, you need to work on the following things to convert your property into a travel nursing housing rental:

• It’s important to furnish your property with all items and amenities needed for a comfortable extended stay. Renting out to travel nurses is different from running a conventional rental business or an Airbnb business.
• You should keep the monthly rent at a reasonable rate to attract medical staff. At the same time, make sure cash flow is positive and ROI is good.
• You should list your property on all the best sites for travel nurses to drive demand.

Types of Properties Suitable for Travel Nurses

With the basics covered, here are the most common travel nurse housing options:

Hotels and Motels

The first thing that may come to mind when thinking of traveling and booking apartments for a temporary healthcare job would be hotels and motels. Although they are considered a more expensive option, it’s an understandable choice if there is a housing shortage.

Some nurses willingly pick hotels because they want to enjoy the amenities that come with the booking. Motels, on the other hand, work for those who wish to have a small kitchen to take care of their daily meal prep.

Things could get tricky with the hotel’s housekeeping, though, especially when the nurses work nights because the housekeepers might disturb them during the day. That makes rentals a much more popular choice, which is excellent news for investors. 

Vacation Rentals

Vacation rentals are not reserved solely for people looking to enjoy their holidays. They are equally suitable for nurses temporarily working at a hospital or clinic within the area. 

In fact, some travel nurses might even choose to live in Airbnb or Vrbo rentals long term if the healthcare facility and the agency they work with make a successful deal. That’s given rise to a relatively new phenomenon in the real estate investing industry – Airbnb long term rentals. These properties are on platforms such as Airbnb that are rented out weekly or monthly rather than daily.

It provides profitable opportunities for investors who’d like to benefit from the advantages of both short term and long term rental properties. We’ll come back to this shortly.

Furnished Apartments

There’s also the opportunity of leasing furnished apartments or furnished rentals. More and more companies are offering flexible leases on furnished apartments, making it easier for travel nurses to settle and start work as soon as possible. 

Traditional apartments require the nurse to enter into a year-long contract, which is not always the best—nor the most practical—idea. Not to mention that they will need to take care of furnishing the property.

Meanwhile, choosing furnished housing with flexible leases is an option that won’t take a toll on the nurse’s finances and will save them from unnecessary packing and moving of bigger items such as furniture. 

So, this opens one more option for investors to consider: investing in fully furnished apartments that focus on meeting the needs of travel nurses. 

Bed and Breakfast

For nurses who will be in town for only a few days, a budget-friendly option would be to opt for bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation. 

This type of housing typically involves families or individuals who rent homes for an overnight stay. That is a great alternative for traveling nurse housing if the agency cannot make other arrangements. 

From an investor’s point of view, it can be a lucrative investment, but make sure you’re genuinely interested in entering the bed and breakfast business before proceeding. 

The Pros and Cons of Investing in Traveling Nurses Housing

We’ve gone through the two main travel nurse housing options and what they may include. Now, let’s discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this strategy for you as a real estate investor.

The Pros

The main benefits associated with renting out to travel nurses include:

• Stable source of rental income, especially if you build a relationship with a staffing agency.
• More rental revenue than with long term rentals. If you’re wondering, “How much do traveling nurses pay for rent?” it’s usually more than the average rental rate in the market. So, you can make more money than a regular landlord.
• Higher occupancy rate than with short term rentals. Though this strategy works similarly to Airbnb, nurses usually stay for at least a few weeks.
• Good ROI. When you combine the high rental rate and the high occupancy, the ultimate result is an excellent return on investment. In a way, this can bring out the best in short and long term rentals.
• Minor wear and tear as nurses will spend most of the time working (outside your property) or sleeping (in your rental). Moreover, as professionals, they tend to be quality, trustworthy tenants.

The Cons

Similar to other real estate investing strategies, some risks come with housing nurses, including:

• Constantly marketing your rental to travel nurses unless you can secure a long term contract with a staffing agency. It makes this housing type similar to investing in short term rentals for sale.
• Lower ROI than vacation rentals. Even though they bring more profit than long term rentals, in most cases, travel nurse properties result in less ROI than Airbnbs.
• Sudden vacancy if the nurse employment contract expires earlier than expected. To avoid this, you should include a protective clause in the leasing agreement.

Is Travel Nurse Housing a Smart Investment in 2023?

Considering the pros and cons of this strategy, investing in housing for traveling nurses can be a great move in 2023. There are a few factors behind this.

First and foremost, the number of travel nurses in the US market exceeds 1.7 million and will continue growing in the next few years. Their salaries are also increasing, a trend that will likely carry on in the foreseeable future.

It means two things for investors: 1) Your rental property will enjoy strong demand, and 2) Your tenants will be able to pay increasing rental rates on time due to their stable source of income.

In addition, travel nurse housing seems to combine the most important benefits of the two standard rental strategies. You get more stability and more occupancy than with short term rentals. At the same time, your rental revenue, cash flow, cap rate, and cash on cash return are higher than with long term rentals.

But before you decide to jump on the bandwagon, keep in mind that this is just another real estate strategy, so you have to deploy a careful investment process.

Tips for Investors

If you’re confident this is the right approach for your investment aspirations, you should conduct careful real estate market research and investment property analysis. You need to ensure both the market and the property will secure good ROI results before investing.

Luckily, Mashvisor exists for such a purpose. It is an online real estate platform that offers investors like you the tools to help you find the top market and the most appropriate property for sale.

Mashvisor: Providing Investors With the Right Tools

The Mashvisor Market Finder is a tool that allows investors to enter their criteria in order to show them a list of the best locations for their particular strategy and situation. It works for short term and long term rental markets, depending on how you’d like to handle housing for travel nurses.

With a few clicks of a button, you can find the locations that match your budget and deliver your expected rental income, occupancy, and cap rate. This includes both cities and neighborhoods.

Next, you can use the Mashvisor Property Finder to locate MLS listings and off-market properties within your selected market. Once again, you can use several filters to match your specific requirements.

Notably, all available properties that meet your expectations will be listed in order of cash on cash return, starting from the highest. In this way, you can tackle the most profitable opportunities right away.

Then, you can conduct a more detailed investment property analysis with the Mashvisor rental property calculator. It will provide an accurate estimate of the rental income, cash flow, and ROI you can expect to generate from the properties you consider buying.

To start finding the best markets and properties for this lucrative strategy, sign up for a 7-day free trial of Mashvisor.

Travel Nurse Housing Sites

Now that you’re familiar with this investment strategy, you need to consider where and how you’ll get travel nurses to book your accommodation. For that, you will have to research websites that aim to provide such accommodation and see if you can list your property there.

Here are our top three picks:

1. Furnished Finder

First on the list is Furnished Finder. This site intends to provide accommodation for travel nurses.

Currently, more than 40,000 listings are available, and they all have proximity to hospitals and other healthcare facilities. As a website dedicated to providing furnished rental opportunities, Furnished Finder is a good place to market your property to travel nurse assignment seekers.

2. Airbnb

Given that vacation rentals are one possible accommodation solution, Airbnb bookings seem to be doing a great job of finding traveling nurses a temporary place to stay. So, it is a platform to consider as an investor. 

While it’s not an actual travel nurse housing website, Airbnb specializes in offering short term rentals, and it’s a place that nurses tend to check. Moreover, the platform allows hosts to provide special discounted pricing for extended stays to cater to the needs of traveling professionals.

3. Extended Stay America

Extended Stay America is another great place to list your property to attract travel nurses. The website has properties in hundreds of US markets, focusing on affordable, safe, and comfortable accommodations for this type of medical professional.

To qualify, properties need to come with a fully equipped kitchen, on-site laundry facilities, and utilities. It is something to consider before deciding whether to market your rental on Extended Stay America.

4. Facebook Housing Groups

As a landlord, you can use Facebook to join temporary housing groups, get in touch with travel nurses in the area, and negotiate everything regarding their stay.  

Some popular Facebook groups where you can list your accommodation include:

• Travel Nursing: Places/Rooms For Rent
• Travel Nurse Housing USA (Private & Shared Rooms, Apartments, Sublets)
• Travel Nurse Housing (The Gypsy Nurse)

How to Make Your Property Attractive to Travel Nurses

Let’s assume that travel nurse housing is the type of investment you’d like to pursue. In that case, you’ll need some guidelines on making your property attractive to this particular group of tenants. 

The number one rule is to understand the challenges that travel nurses face and do your best to address them. 

For starters, consider their length of stay. The approximate duration of a travel nurse contract is usually around 13 weeks. So, if you plan on renting your investment property to travel nurses, you should make it available for the period mentioned with some flexibility on both ends.

Even more so, you should be aware that contracts sometimes get canceled. It would be wise to offer month-to-month housing options. In this way, you will have other tenants ready to book the property should the nurse’s contract get terminated earlier than expected.

Perhaps the most crucial part is furnishing your investment property. Make sure your property has all the necessary amenities, and include some specifics that travel nurses might need. It’ll undoubtedly mean a lot to them.

Last, keep the price of travel nurse housing within the average range of market values for rent in your area. You don’t want to overprice your property as that would only drive tenants away.

Should You Rent Out to Traveling Nurses?: Final Thoughts

For all the reasons listed above, investing in travel nurse housing could be a very lucrative strategy in 2023. Both demand and rents will continue going up, providing profitable opportunities to savvy investors.

While this strategy has some of its own peculiarities, at the end of the day, it’s the same as any other real estate investment move. You have to conduct a lot of research and analysis to select the best market and property.

Buying just any rental in any location and listing it on a dedicated website will not do the trick. Instead, you must base your decision on factual and reliable data and analytics.

The comprehensive Mashvisor real estate investing platform can provide you with all the tools you need to achieve this.

You can research markets and analyze their performance. You can search for investment properties for sale. And you can do rental property analysis on chosen properties to ensure positive cash flow and good return on investment.

To learn more about how Mashvisor can optimize the real estate investment process for you, schedule a demo with our team of experts.