Traveling Nurses - Discrimination?

Question

Hello - I am in the process of creating a listing for my rental. It would be a great property for traveling nurses. Is posting, "great for traveling nurses" in a listing considered discrimination?

Jason Hatcher · Answer

Hey Craig,

My girlfriend and I are travel nurses and have been traveling for 3 years now.  There are ways to target travel nurses without any discrimination.  There are facebook groups for travel nurse housing and you can just post your listing there.  Typically, travel nurses sign 13 week contracts and can extend up to 1 year in an area.  Fully furnished places are a plus, but every traveler is different.  Some just travel with clothes, while we typically travel with quite a bit more.  For the most part, they are great renters if you don't mind the short term aspect of it.  You could include on AirBNB something along the lines of "travel nurse friendly" or just include "travel nurse" somewhere in the description.  The facebook groups are usually pretty successful for filling.  Check out" Travel Nurse Housing - the gypsy nurse".  It has over 34 thousand members.  You can also reach out to some of the companies if you want.  That might be a headache to get things started with it, but might be worth it in the long run.  Check out some of the bigger companies that do housing.  We have an option to take company housing or do our own.  We have always done our own housing, but currently traveling to work in Maui this summer and taking company housing there.  A few companies I can think of:

Medical Staffing Solutions Inc (who we are with now)

Aya

American Mobile

IPI

I'm sure there are a lot more.  You can search top travel nurse companies and just give some a call.  Best of luck and thanks for helping us out!

James Carlson · Answer

@Craig Curelop It's good that you're considering that as you make your posting, but as others have said, you're totally fine doing it. @Jeff Copeland raises the idea of protected classes. Even if nurses were protected classes, there's nothing against advertisements that seek out protected classes.

Account Closed Denver's a great market for targeting that demographic. My wife and I have two condos in the heart of Capitol Hill in Denver. One is an 800sf 1br unit. The other is a 350sf studio. The studio is definitely our best investment. We furnished them and rent them almost exclusively to traveling nurses. While we do say in our ads that they're "great for traveling nurses," I think there are other keywords those people are searching for. I advertise my places as "furnished short-term rentals." I'm pretty sure that's more what they're searching for.

Ben Volkman · Answer

@Craig Curelop My wife and I are currently traveling physical therapists.  Great market!  If you want to attract travelers, I search for the term "short term lease" or something along those lines.

We often have some trouble finding places because everyone wants 1 year leases, especially in small town USA.  A super easy way to get travelers to your place would be to contact a Rehab manager or nurse manager who hires the travelers and they can pass along your contact information.  I have heard many times that people want jobs but had to decline because they couldn't find housing.

Travelers want short term leases and furnished (and pets allowed if they have them).  And since travelers can make up to 75% more than a normal salary, most are willing to pay more than market value to have everything set up for them for easy move in, easy move out process.

Account Closed · Answer

I've thought about targeting this market (spent some time as an EMT with many friends who are nurses)

There are a lot of places like this one I've found that specializes in that market.

Marc Littmann · Answer

A few months late to this thread, but wanted to throw in some resources I have been exploring on renting to traveling nurses. Seems like there is good potential--we might be moving into this niche market here in Boulder-Longmont, CO area for our first investment purchase in the next 90 days:

http://www.thegypsynurse.com/blog/travel-nurse-housing-5-tips-finding-short-term-furnished-housing/

https://www.fusionmedstaff.com/traveler/

TravelNurse Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/travelnursehousing/about/

FurnishedFinder, a site for travelers and housing owners to connect on property listing to rent for their 13 week rotations:

https://www.furnishedfinder.com/blog/Top-7-conside...  (Great post on what travel nurses are looking for in a short term rental)

Hope this helps!

Marc Littmann

Jeff Sheraton · Answer

In my city (and some other areas) "source on income" is a protected class.  Not sure if this would apply in your case.  I know that this law prevents us from saying things like "no construction workers" or "no SSI recipients".

If you want a travelling nurse maybe its worth reaching out to the companies that house them.  Perhaps they could get the info to the nurses or even rent the home themselves for different nurses as they travel into town.

Jeff Copeland · Answer

Traveling nurses, and non-traveling nurses, and people who aren't any kind of nurse at all for that matter, are not a protected class under any fair housing laws that I'm aware of.

That being said, @David Dachtera has a valid point. I would highlight what makes it such a great property for traveling nurses and other transient professionals.

@Jason Hatcher is a BP investor and a traveling nurse - curious what would make a property attractive to his demographic.

Bonnie Low · Answer

If you're ever in far northern CA look me up! We have hosted several PTs at our properties - all on 13 week contracts ; )

Bonnie Low · Answer

Not at all. First, you're not targeting a "protected class" which is where discrimination laws come into play. Second, you're not excluding anyone who is NOT a travel nurse are you? It's not different than saying 'this space is ideal for families' or 'great for anyone working from home' or 'our space is perfect for anyone who loves the outdoors.' You're just marketing to a particular niche. The key is to not exclude anyone in your marketing if you're concerned about discrimination. That said, I would encourage you to consider widening your net because you may be surprised to find that the market for traveling professionals is much, much broader than just travel nurses. For example, even within the travel medical professional space you'll find physical therapists, pharmacists, respiratory technicians, phlebotomists, x-ray techs, sonogram techs, medical students and residents and even physicians. Beyond that you'll find everything from digital nomads to construction workers to seasonal employees in various sectors. So don't limit yourself when you market your property. True, you probably have a niche that it may be more suited for than others (not every property is suitable for construction workers for example as they typically need space to park vehicles and equipment and will usually have more wear and tear on your property), but keep your options open!

Traveling Nurses - Discrimination?

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