• Agency Provided Travel Nurse Housing
• Finding Your Own Housing Using your housing stipend
• Travel in an RV

Housing Stipend

Last week we discussed the company provided travel nurse housing. If you haven’t read this, I suggest that you take a look at it and read over the tax implications.

Today we are going to touch on obtaining your own travel nurse housing. There are multiple considerations when opting for a travel nurse housing stipend. If you have a valid tax-home, you can sometimes pocket a little extra cash by obtaining your own housing.

Many travel nurses choose to find their own housing simply because of the additional financial benefit. If the travel nurse housing stipend is more than the rent, the traveler can pocket the remainder! This is a huge benefit for finding your own travel nurse housing.

It’s important that you treat each assignment individually and assess housing availability and cost prior to determining if you are going to accept a travel nurse housing stipend instead of company-provided housing. There are some areas that finding housing that is furnished is difficult. In these situations, it’s likely better to take company housing. Make sure that you have options.

Online Resources for finding Travel Nurse Housing

• The Gypsy Nurse Facebook Housing Group
• The Gypsy Nurse Housing via Furnished Finder
• Furnished Finder which has over 40,000 properties listed on their site
• Online classifieds
• Aggregate apartment rental sites
• Individual apartment rental sites
• Home rental sites like VRBO and Airbnb
• Bed & Breakfasts
• Roommate or house-sharing sites
• Hotels (you can sometimes negotiate an acceptable rate with some good negotiation skills)

Things to consider when choosing the Travel Nurse housing stipend.

• Does availability and price match what the stipend would be?
• What is the minimum length of the lease? I recommend obtaining a month to month lease in case your contract is terminated early. However, these can be very difficult to find.
• Do you want a private space or shared?
• Do you need cable, internet, etc?
• Will there be any deposits?
• Is parking included?
• What utilities are included? Furniture?
• Calculate your anticipated cost with everything and make sure that your stipend will cover the costs.
• Consider an unfurnished rental and furnish it yourself.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Obtaining your own Travel Nurse Housing

Advantages

• You have full control over the location and type of travel nurse housing provided.
• You may be able to find travel nurse housing that doesn’t cost the full ‘stipend’ and therefore, put a little additional money in your pocket.

Disadvantages

• Travel Nurse Housing research can be very time-consuming.
• The lease is in your name so there may be credit checks required from the accommodation.
• If housing is limited in the area, you might actually get better housing by using the agency’s resources.