Travel Nurse Rental Niche

[Paige Miller]

I am looking at a property that is currently rented partially to travel nurses. I want some input from other investors that are working in this niche market. What things are critical to get a steady flow of tenants? The current landlord is collecting about 2.5x the amount of market rent, is that normal for this niche or a fluke? Where do you advertise to get the most exposure? Thanks for all your input!

[James Mc Ree]

There is a thread on this topic that may have some helpful information and contacts.

[Tim Rostro]

@Paige Miller

Hello,

I know this is an old post with only one reply but did you ever get any information concerning this?  I have a 4 bedroom/2 bath house in Euclid, OH that will be free in a couple of months and thinking of doing the same thing, renting to travel nurses or traveling medical personnel, by the room.  Cleveland Clinic is rated as the #2 hospital in the world.  I talked to my property management company about this and should be getting further information from them if they are capable of doing this as this is a short term rental.   

Hope everything works out for you.

V/R,

Tim Rostro

[Conner Olsen]

@Paige Miller I'm doing medium-term rentals in Austin and can say that 2.5x rent is normal! There is a huge demand for furnished housing. I advertise on Airbnb, VRBO, Furnished Finders, and FB Groups but have only had bookings through Airbnb. My property is booked out before travel nurses get their assignments and at a higher rate than other furnished rentals on furnished finder.

[Conner Olsen]

@Tim Rostro I'm doing this in Austin and it's going great! Making great cash flow.

[Tim Rostro]

@Conner Olsen

Mind if I call you for more info and research?

Tim Rostro

[Alex Talcott]

Some of our favorite tenants are in the medical field.

Neat, well and regularly paid, out at work a lot/not wearing down the place.

Travel nurses are coming and going, so you can get dinged with some vacancy. Furnished or semi-furnished units helpful to them.

[Jack Edgar jr]

Looking to do this or even insurance temp housing in the Chicago suburbs with a single family house. Any advice here in the Chicagoland market? 

[Nicholas Misch]

We looked at it for our almost complete BRRRR to Airbnb, which is 5 min from a major hospital and airport, but the stats seem to have dropped a lot since the covid surge has ended.

[Bonnie Low]

@Conner Olsen have you seen any softening in demand amongst travel nurses? A lot of hosts in this market are reporting contracts are down post-COVID and so is demand. I suspect some of the major hospitals always have a need for traveling staff so it may be less of a problem in bigger cities.

[James Wise]

Quote from @Paige Miller:

I am looking at a property that is currently rented partially to travel nurses. I want some input from other investors that are working in this niche market. What things are critical to get a steady flow of tenants? The current landlord is collecting about 2.5x the amount of market rent, is that normal for this niche or a fluke? Where do you advertise to get the most exposure? Thanks for all your input!

 We do really well in the travel nurse niche in the Cleveland market. We've got Cleveland Clinic, Metro and University Hospitals here so it works out very well for us. You can definitely hit a monthly rent amount much higher than normal long term rates by hitting this niche of people.

[Andrew Weiner]

The rents are higher but so are the costs, cleaning, vacancy, admin, etc. are all higher.  Also you need to furnish the unit and if things break that are still normal wear and tear that on you.  It can do better but it’s not apples to apples to say it’s a straight 2.5x higher on the revenue side without considering the increase in expense.

[Angela Hodge]

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

@Conner Olsen have you seen any softening in demand amongst travel nurses? A lot of hosts in this market are reporting contracts are down post-COVID and so is demand. I suspect some of the major hospitals always have a need for traveling staff so it may be less of a problem in bigger cities.

[Angela Hodge]

Quote from @Angela Hodge:

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

@Conner Olsen have you seen any softening in demand amongst travel nurses? A lot of hosts in this market are reporting contracts are down post-COVID and so is demand. I suspect some of the major hospitals always have a need for traveling staff so it may be less of a problem in bigger cities.

[Angela Hodge]

Hello Bonnie, 

Travel nursing has softened a bit, however,  Covid-19 is back on the rise and soon will have another demand of Travel RNs thereby increasing short term rentals once more.

[Brent Rieman]

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Paige Miller:

I am looking at a property that is currently rented partially to travel nurses. I want some input from other investors that are working in this niche market. What things are critical to get a steady flow of tenants? The current landlord is collecting about 2.5x the amount of market rent, is that normal for this niche or a fluke? Where do you advertise to get the most exposure? Thanks for all your input!

 We do really well in the travel nurse niche in the Cleveland market. We've got Cleveland Clinic, Metro and University Hospitals here so it works out very well for us. You can definitely hit a monthly rent amount much higher than normal long term rates by hitting this niche of people.

 Do you do any of this on the West side of CLE?   I have an 8 unit Townhouse building in a far west side suburb and am thinking of turning one of the units into furnished rental targeting travel nursing. 

[Beth Blankenbicker]

I am a travel nurse so maybe I can weigh in if you have any specific questions

[Beth Blankenbicker]

I am a travel nurse so maybe I can weigh in if you have any specific questions

[James Wise]

Quote from @Brent Rieman:

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Paige Miller:

I am looking at a property that is currently rented partially to travel nurses. I want some input from other investors that are working in this niche market. What things are critical to get a steady flow of tenants? The current landlord is collecting about 2.5x the amount of market rent, is that normal for this niche or a fluke? Where do you advertise to get the most exposure? Thanks for all your input!

 We do really well in the travel nurse niche in the Cleveland market. We've got Cleveland Clinic, Metro and University Hospitals here so it works out very well for us. You can definitely hit a monthly rent amount much higher than normal long term rates by hitting this niche of people.

 Do you do any of this on the West side of CLE?   I have an 8 unit Townhouse building in a far west side suburb and am thinking of turning one of the units into furnished rental targeting travel nursing. 

 Yes. We have several on the west side. All doing very well.

[Stephen Dispensa]

I ran two furnished rentals where we have had travel nurses for the past year. It fell off MASSIVELY this summer and with good reason. Hospitals had previously been giving much larger housing stipends than normal during the pandemic. As of July, hospitals in my area (Tampa) cut off those stipends. We had nurses have to terminate assignments early because the stipends dropped and they couldn't afford the rentals any longer. 

I would not recommend to any of my clients to rely on another round of pandemic related demand leading to stable travel nurse income. If the unit does not work for STR, use it as a regular rental. Your cash flow will thank you.

[Brent Rieman]

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Brent Rieman:

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Paige Miller:

I am looking at a property that is currently rented partially to travel nurses. I want some input from other investors that are working in this niche market. What things are critical to get a steady flow of tenants? The current landlord is collecting about 2.5x the amount of market rent, is that normal for this niche or a fluke? Where do you advertise to get the most exposure? Thanks for all your input!

 We do really well in the travel nurse niche in the Cleveland market. We've got Cleveland Clinic, Metro and University Hospitals here so it works out very well for us. You can definitely hit a monthly rent amount much higher than normal long term rates by hitting this niche of people.

 Do you do any of this on the West side of CLE?   I have an 8 unit Townhouse building in a far west side suburb and am thinking of turning one of the units into furnished rental targeting travel nursing. 

 Yes. We have several on the west side. All doing very well.

 How are you advertising to this nitch?    I've been looking around and see furnishedfinder seems to be the main website for listing and has a few around me.  Ive got a real unique property (lakefront with beach) and would like to find ways to 2x the rent on some of the units. 

[Brady Richard]

Quote from @Beth Blankenbicker:

I am a travel nurse so maybe I can weigh in if you have any specific questions

 @Beth Blankenbicker Thank you for your offer to provide your insight to the forum. How would a prospective investor determine the need in a particular market besides taking the "build it and they will come" approach (buying, furnishing, advertising, and keeping fingers crossed)? Thanks, Beth

[Beth Blankenbicker]

Quote from @Brady Richard:

Quote from @Beth Blankenbicker:

I am a travel nurse so maybe I can weigh in if you have any specific questions

 @Beth Blankenbicker Thank you for your offer to provide your insight to the forum. How would a prospective investor determine the need in a particular market besides taking the "build it and they will come" approach (buying, furnishing, advertising, and keeping fingers crossed)? Thanks, Beth

 I would try to look for hospitals that relied heavily on travel nurses even before the pandemic, these will be your most stable markets going forward. If you can, find hospitals that offer multiple contracts- i.e. are they hiring one travel nurse at a time or ten?  A lot of hospitals are trying to phase out traveling nurses right now but we are seeing a trend that they will phase out travel nurses and then in a few months start hiring them again when they realize they cannot meet their own staffing needs. The spring and summer months tend to slow down for travel contracts and as a result the contract rates fall too but the fall/winter picks back up when the RSV/Flu/Covid season begins. The location should be within easy driving distance to the hospital but also a safe area, its better if the location is within easy driving distance to multiple hospitals as you can increase your pool of applicants. You can advertise on Furnished Finders, there are also specific Facebook groups geared towards travel nurse housing. As for furnishing- comfortable mattress, good blackout curtains are a must, fully stocked kitchen. Recently a travel nurse was complaining that they rented a place with a fully stocked kitchen but the kitchen had no cookie sheets, muffin tins, measuring cups or spoons, another nurse might not care about those things if they do not cook/bake but for that nurse it was important. Above and beyond would be things like a blender, an instant pot- some nurses travel with these things because, to them, they are must have items but if the nurse is flying into their next contract they are very limited on what they can bring with them.

Above all else PLEASE take into consideration that travel nurse "contracts" are volatile at best. A nurse will uproot his/her entire family, travel hundreds or thousands of miles to their next contract, sign paperwork and hand over thousands of dollars for a place to live and find out THE NEXT DAY that their contract has been canceled. Personally I will not sign any lease that does not have a generous release clause and I instruct other travel nurses to do the same. If the contract gets canceled then we don't have a job, if we don't have a job we are not getting paid, if we are not getting paid then how are we supposed to pay our rent? Being locked into a 13 week lease for thousands of dollars with no income is a lose-lose situation.

[Kaylee Walterbach]

You could check out 30-Day Stay by Zeona and Sarah! A great resource for learning about MTRs.

[David M.]

@Beth Blankenbicker

Sounds like a standard clause, at least standard to me, is if the tenant is relocated due by their employer, they can break the contract with no penalties.  Basically, make the lease contingent on the nurse having a contract would make sense to me.  Sound about right?  N.B.  I don't do these sort of rentals.

[Kevin Peterson]

Quote from @Beth Blankenbicker:

I am a travel nurse so maybe I can weigh in if you have any specific questions

 Hello,

I am considering listing a furnished rental in the Atlanta area near the airport, could you give me some insight from the nurses prospective? Thank you