Renting to traveling nurses. Who's done it?

Question

Hi BP family,

I am finishing renovation of two units in Albany, NY close to an area hospital.  From the locals, I have heard that renting to traveling nurses could be a good way to boost the rental income, but where do I find comps on such rentals?  The nurses also usually only stay for a few months.  Is the turnover and extra vetting/ management worth it?  What are other investors experiences?

Thanks all!

Colleen F. · Answer

@Andrew Jentnings Freerks  if you really want travel workers there are other health care workers and other professions that travel. If you list as 7 day minimum you will get people visiting the area as well. 30 days may limit this to mostly travel workers. You often have to collect short term taxes for stays less than 30 days. Evaluate if your unit is suitable for shift workers in terms of noise and lighting. Furnished finder will give you an idea of the competitive price.  There is a decrease in pay for the travelers recently from what I have heard. Also look at Facebook groups if you want a flavor for this group although more for less is a theme of the most vocal on those groups.

Wesley Sherow · Answer

I just spent some time reading up on the above comments, and I don't condone the flak that traveling nurses are getting here. These are extreme generalizations. The traveling nurse industry is extremely difficult to live in, as I've heard from family in the field.

There are people from all walks of life in many different professions, and ANYONE renting in the short term space runs risk of being tough to manage. Short term rentals are treated a lot like hotel travelers, and thus the standards are MUCH higher than long term rentals. Hospitality becomes a factor.

Previously I operated 40 short term rental arbitrage units in Jersey City, and during that time I had thousands of travelers every few months. It's the transient space that is more work and headache, not particular professions of people.

Let's give some credit to traveling nurses for being an important part of society.

Wesley Sherow · Answer

Good morning Andrew. I've rented to plenty of Traveling Nurses in the Albany area, so i'll chime in here. Firstly, yes in the Albany market there is a lot of demand for that category of traveler, but i've also found that similar opportunities can be found in other professions as well. For example recently I rented several studios to traveling electricians for an engineering company. With that said, I don't think that special websites are needed here, especially if they don't integrate with PMS software. This category of traveler falls into the bucket of short term rental and corporate rental. If you furnish your newly renovated units and put them on AirBnB, VRBO, Booking.com, Agoda, etc via a channel manager, you'll be able to maximize the returns there. I'd also add that you could limit your nights available to only increments of 7 days so that you're not going completely transient.

To be very competitive and command the highest rates, it's very recommended to spend about 10-15% of your budget on a good designer who knows the short term rental space. I've been in that space in Albany for about 5 years now and whereas it used to be easy to get away with quite any mom/pop style rental, the national trend for beautiful experience driven rentals is starting to hit albany.

The cost to operate a short term/corporate rental includes utilities, wifi, cost of furniture, and consumables. I developed a website that can help do the financial modeling on an investment in the short term space, in case that's helpful. It pre-fills a lot of your expenses using market data, however it's customizable if you know your numbers. www.strbrain.com.If you're looking for a short term rental manager in the area keep me posted, my company does handle that as well. I hope this was helpful! Best of luck.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I've rented to a lot of traveling nurses. As a whole, I consider them just shy of mentally ill. I honestly believe a lot of them travel because they wouldn't last in a long-term job.

With that said, it was a winner. They usually paid a good price, were mostly quiet, and it produces a profit. But some of them belong in an institution and cost some serious time and money.

Michael Baum · Answer

Hey @Andrew Jennings Freerks, there are a bunch of recent posts about this topic if you do a search.

Jake Handler · Answer

furnishedfinder.com provides some nice analytics for each market.  I am subscribed to their emails and find them very informative.  I haven't used their services to find a tenant, so can't really speak to their services beyond the data they provide in emails... although I hear great reviews.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

I've done it.  Wouldn't do it again.  I prefer welders, pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians and inspectors.  They make more money and are not psychotic mutts like the nurses are.

Renting to traveling nurses. Who's done it?

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