Travel PT Housing 101:
Tips and tricks for finding short term housing
Other than finding a job, securing short-term housing is by far the most daunting aspect of becoming a traveling healthcare professional! Finding a good place to call “home” while you’re away from home can make or break your experience. Some questions we get regularly revolve around travel PT housing – Does your company pay for housing? How do you qualify for a stipend? Should you take the stipend? How do you find housing? Where do you look for housing?
In our years of traveling, we have grown as a family – starting with one dog, adding a second, and now the addition of our infant! While traveling across 6 states, we have found housing in a number of different ways. And we’ve always found a great place to stay (although some experiences have been better than others).
We have developed deep friendships and shared holiday meals with our neighbors. We have lived with friends and co-workers, watched as the family upstairs raised their nosey dog-loving little girls, and randomly shared the hallway with the director of the Iditerod Dog Sled race. Sure, we have also come across a few not so nice neighbors, but ultimately housing is much like life in that it is what you make of it. There are a few rowdy uncooperative folks on every block, they are the exceptions, not the rule.
All of our experiences have grown us and changed us. Whether we had months to plan or 2 days (yes, we have found housing, while en route to a contract, in just 2 days) we are proof that if we can find short term housing, then so can you! Whether you’re contemplating taking the leap into becoming a traveler, or ready with contract in hand, this article should help you through some of the ups and downs of finding housing for your travel therapy contract.
For the sake of this blog, we will focus on the benefits and strategies of taking the stipend option (assuming you qualify) and how to go about finding your own housing.
Do I Qualify for a Housing Stipend?
This is the most important question to answer when trying to figure out if you qualify to receive the tax free stipend or housing allowance. In order to qualify for stipends, the government wants to be sure that you are in fact a traveler! Why should you get tax free money in your paycheck to pay for living expenses if you aren’t duplicating expenses, right?
We are not tax experts. But the information we have gleaned from listening to Joe Smith at TravCon is that generally you can claim a tax home based on two criteria:
- The location where you make the greatest portion of your income
- The location where you make repeated payments for living expenses
If you want to know more, the friendly staff over at traveltax.com can help answer your questions – they even have a great Q&A section (page linked HERE) you can browse through or just shoot them a message. They’re super quick to respond!
You can’t work in your home town and receive the stipend, and if you’ve ever heard that you must work 50 miles away from home don’t believe it – it’s an unfounded industry guideline that many companies use to tell if you qualify for the stipends. The job you are working should be sufficiently far from home that it requires you to duplicate expenses.
Should I Take Company Housing or Opt for the Stipend?
A typical traveler pay package for a travel contract will always include your regular hourly taxable rate, as well as a breakdown of untaxed money, “stipend”, which usually includes housing allowance, meals and incidentals, and possibly some reimbursements. Stipend rates are determined by the government and are different for each city based on living expenses in that area. You can check the GSA.COM to get an idea of what kind of stipend to expect in the area you are looking to travel to. Keep in mind that this is the MAXIMUM allowable by the government, not necessarily how much you will be getting.
There are two approaches to handling the stipend situation:
1. Many travel contract companies employ a marketing strategy offering “Free Company Housing” as part of their job offer to you. But what we all know (but sometimes overlook) is that nothing in life is actually “free”! So when a company offers free housing, they are essentially using the housing allowance portion of your stipend to pay for your housing, and you are forfeiting tax free stipend money that could be going straight to you for use at your own discretion.
Taking company housing may be a GREAT option if you’re like our friend Nicole who loves the no hassle approach to traveling. She would sign her contract, drive to the next location, get the keys to the new apartment and she was ready to go! All the dirty work was left to her company for finding, securing, furnishing, and fronting the move-in costs. Easy enough!
One perk of doing it this way is that should your contract be canceled early you are not stuck paying a fine for breaking your lease early, your recruiting agency covers that.
One down side is that you may be more picky as to your living arrangement than your recruiting agency is. A large amount, but not all, of the choice is out of your control.
2. The other option is to take the stipend as part of your pay package, and find your own housing for your assignment. Although this involves more effort, this is the option we have always taken. It allows us more control over our living situation and where our money is spent.
Taking the travel stipend has been one of the greatest financial perks (in our experience) of traveling contracts, especially as a traveling team/married couple. A question we get often is that if you are traveling as a team, do you only get one stipend? The answer is, No! Traveling as a team allows you added perk of getting two stipends! This extra flow of un-taxed income is great if you want to pay off your loans, or just have some extra cash to travel around with or invest. The ability to find affordable housing that is under the stipend amount has allowed us to sock some extra cash away for adventures!
How do I find travel PT housing?
Now that we have answered the first two questions – and assuming you DO qualify for a stipend and are choosing to take it and find your own housing – let’s get to the most important question of how to go about finding short term housing!
First off we need to determine WHERE you are going to live in your new town. Our best advice here is to try to research your soon-to-be location and try to identify a few neighborhoods that suit your needs. Nothing too posh, but nothing too “methy” either. Many times we have discussed potential housing locations with our future boss and have had some good guidance from them.
There are many options for finding housing as a traveler, and I will only discuss the ones we have used or thoroughly considered:
Craigslist – we’ve been successful here on three contracts, and that’s saying a lot when you’re looking for a short term rental that allows 2 large dogs! Plus, the new map view is helpful for determining approximate commute times.
Post a personal ad – When we had difficulty finding a place to live in Berkeley, CA, we posted a “housing wanted” ad on Craigslist for 2 professionals looking for a place to stay and ended up in the sweetest little basement apartment and a secret garden tucked up in the Berkeley hills, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge! Along with the cutest little 3 and 6 year old neighbor girls who kept us company after school☺
Airbnb – sometimes it can be difficult to find a place for extended amounts of time, especially if you’re in a popular vacation destination, but once you do here are some tips for negotiating a monthly rate.
Housing through your clinic/contract – Some locations will be able to offer their own housing options. In Alaska, we were fortunate that the owner of the private OP clinic Steve was to work for also owned an apartment complex and put us up as part of our contract deal.
Stay with a friend – we’ve done this once and managed to still keep a good friendship going! Be sure you pick your friends carefully. This is not just crashing there for a weekend vacation…. its 3 full months.
Stay with a co-worker – At one of my contracts, I couldn’t find anything reasonable in the area and was 7 hrs away from Steve (long story). So I stayed in hotels for the first few nights and then was offered the most amazing sofa at the speech therapists’ quaint little bungalow and it was a lifesaver! I paid her whole rent and still saved compared to what I would have spent on a hotel.
Facebook groups – such as Travel Nurse Housing, or Gypsy Soul Travel Nurse Housing Options are both great resources. We have never used one though.
FurnishedFinder.com – A great search engine for traveling professionals. Higher end locations catering to the “executive suite” crowd but it could be a great spot for the right traveler. We do not do “executive” anything so no, we have not tried this option yet.
Extended Stay America – Helpful in a pinch, and they allow dogs! We have considered them many times but have always found better options elsewhere. Plus most of them do not have full kitchens.
A few other options to consider would be to ask during your interview if anyone offers a room or apartment and to possibly call local churches, realtors, etc.
Advanced housing tip:
We have a bunch of friends who have done this technique successfully and highly recommend it.
Secure an Airbnb or VRBO for the first week or two of your contract. Be sure to mention to the owners that you are searching for more long term housing. During your first couple of weeks you can then get a lay of the land, tour some other locations, OR possibly the Airbnb owner will extend the option to stay there for the whole time at a better rate given that it is long term.
This is a great way to keep from committing to a long-er term lease blindly from miles and miles away.
Things we have learned
Over the years we’ve learned a lot about our housing situation.
- Just like your job, you can really deal with just about anything short term! Or if you really don’t like it, change it!
- Be clear on what you are looking for – and be sure you understand your needs vs. your wants! Our priorities have been a short term lease that allows 2 large dogs… and now that we have an infant it also must have a washer/dryer! After that, we can pretty much put up with anything. Having a pool right outside our door for this contract is a definite perk!
- Be flexible! This goes along with number 2. You may not get the most ideal housing situation each time. Sometimes it may even fall through last minute! Or you may be searching for housing during your first weeks of work while you stay at a hotel.
- Keep an open mind and be patient! Just remember, it all works out in the end.
Written by: Ellen Stockhausen
