We cater specifically to travel nurses with three of our SFHs.
Pros:
Quality tenants - There's a tremendous amount of vetting for a nurse and other traveling medical professionals to get their contracts. A lot of them are homeowners themselves and take great care of the properties.
Cashflow - Much higher than our standard 12 month lease rental. It's not as high as AirBNB in the summer high season, but it's consistent throughout the year.
Vacancies - We rent by the room which feels a bit like multifamily in this regard. I'm only losing 33% of my income in our 3/2 when a room goes empty. Also, these are not considered short term rentals because they stay at a minimum 90 days on average. In our area, most renew their contracts. We've had tenants as long as nine months.
Cons:
Time consuming - It's not as bad as AirBNB, but it's not as quiet as our long term tenant rental. It's definitely a job. We're responsible for all utilities, housekeeping, and yard maintenance. This is our first year where we can hire out those functions. Otherwise it totally sucks.
Furnishing costs - with this level of tenant, we spend the money on quality furnishings. Quality mattresses and linens, huge TVs, solid kitchen that supports meal prep, etc. We spend up front but feel we definitely get this back over time with a solid listing and low vacancy.
Management:
I use Cozy for tenant screening and rent collection.
I advertise on Furnished Finder. Their website and app sucks but it's the main platform that travel nurses use. They've also partnered up with The Gypsy Nurse ring on Facebook. We post on there as well with a link to our listing on Furnished Finder.
Now that we've been doing this for a couple years, we get a lot of tenants by word of mouth and recommendations from previous tenants. I offer discounts when current tenants bring in their friends. Saves my time and they'll probably enjoy living together more.
Hit us up if you have anymore questions and good luck!
