Travel Nurse housing is a very common concern, especially for the new travel nurse. There are multiple options to consider when asking the question Where am I going to live?

The most common option for travel nurse housing is Company provided housing .  However, there are actually a few options when it comes to travel nurse housing. Although many travel nurses utilize the benefit of agency arranged housing, there are some that prefer to accept a ‘housing stipend’ and arrange housing on their own. The third option that many choose is to carry their home with them in the form of an RV. There are advantages and disadvantage to each of the options listed.

  This is Part 3 in a series of 3 to address this common question of:

Where am I going to Live?

Last week we discussed company provided housing. Today we are going to touch on obtaining your own housing. There are multiple considerations when obtaining your own housing. If you haven’t read part 1, I suggest that you take a look at it and read over the tax implications. If you have a valid tax-home, you can sometimes pocket a little extra cash by obtaining your own housing.

I would recommend that you treat each assignment individually and assess housing availability and cost prior to determining if you are going to accept a stipend instead of company provided housing. There are some areas that finding housing that is furnished is difficult. Make sure that you have options.

There are multiple resources online to find housing:

• Online classifieds
• Aggregate apartment rental sites
• Individual apartment rental sites
• Vacation Home Rentals
• Bed & Breakfasts (Find the Ideal Bed and Breakfast Inn on BedandBreakfast.com)
• Room mate or house-sharing sites
• Hotels (you can sometimes negotiate an acceptable rate with some good negotiation skills)

Things to consider when obtaining your own housing:

• 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 need cable, internet, etc (Get NetZero Internet)
• Will there be any deposits?
• What utilities are included? Furniture?
• Calculate your anticipated cost with everything and make sure that your stipend will cover the costs.

If your interested in traveling with an RV, check back next week or better yet click on the ‘subscribe’ in the sidebar.  You can also follow me via Twitter or Facebook.

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TheGypsyNurse

Owner at The Gypsy Nurse

As a travel nursing educator, Candy aka Gypsy Nurse, RN has worked in healthcare for nearly 20 years, working up the ranks from CNA to LPN to RN. For the past eight years, she’s worked as a travel nurse, allowing her to practice and live in 14 states throughout the U.S. She regularly shares advice for those interested in travel nurse jobs on her website at: www.thegypsynurse.com.

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