Screening Travel Nurses for Short-Term Furnished Rentals

I got my first call from a traveling nurse in March 2017. She needed a furnished two-bedroom for 13 weeks near the regional hospital. My standard application asked for two years of rental history and a local paystub. She had neither. I nearly said no. That would have been a mistake.

A traveling nurse is a registered nurse who takes temporary assignments, usually 8 to 26 weeks, at hospitals away from their permanent tax home. A furnished rental is a unit that comes with furniture, linens, and a stocked kitchen. Short-term furnished housing attracts these nurses because they don't want to move a mattress for three months. The screening process changes because the employer has already done part of your job.

What I ask for instead of a paystub

For a long-term tenant, I want a credit report, income at three times the rent, and a call to the prior landlord. For a travel nurse, I ask for two things: the signed hospital contract and a photo ID. The contract lists the facility, the assignment dates, and the hourly or weekly rate. Hospitals run background checks and drug screenings before they issue that contract. I'm not saying every hospital is perfect, but a signed contract tells me the nurse has cleared a higher bar than my application form.

I still run the application for basics. I check the national eviction database if I can, and I confirm the ID matches. I don't call the hospital's HR department. The contract is usually enough. If something feels off, I ask for the staffing agency's contact and verify the assignment directly. That takes ten minutes.

The income question becomes simpler. A travel nurse's weekly rate might sound high, but it includes housing stipends. I don't need to see three times the monthly rent in local paystubs. I look at the contract rate and ask for the first month's rent and security deposit before move-in. If they can pay that, the income is real.

The 50-mile question

Travel nurses often receive a tax-free housing stipend. The common rule of thumb is that the assignment must be far enough from their permanent tax home to qualify. Many people use 50 miles as a rough guide, though the IRS test is more about the tax home, not a fixed radius. I'm not a tax preparer. I just ask the applicant one question: "Is your permanent address more than 50 miles from this rental?"

If the answer is yes, I write it down in the file. That distance tells me two things. The nurse has a reason to stay for the whole assignment, because leaving early can complicate the tax treatment of their stipend. It also tells me they aren't a local resident trying to use a short-term rental as a crash pad. This is a practical screen, not a legal guarantee. It's just a check I've used for eight years without a problem.

Lease terms that flex

A standard 12-month lease doesn't fit a 13-week nursing contract. If the hospital cancels in week nine, the nurse could be stuck or I could be chasing rent. My lease for travel nurses is month-to-month with a prorated daily rate. I divide the monthly rent by 30 days. If they stay 17 days in the final month, they pay for 17 days. No early termination fee. No argument.

I also include a furnished inventory checklist. The couch, the coffee maker, the sheets, the towels. We walk through together at move-in and sign it. At move-out, we check it again. Damage beyond normal wear comes out of the deposit. That's standard for any furnished rental, but it matters more when tenants stay only three months.

Some landlords write week-to-week leases for travel nurses. I've done that when the assignment was six weeks. Month-to-month feels more stable and is easier to explain to a mortgage lender if they ask about my rental income. The daily proration handles the short stays.

Why this works until it doesn't

In the last eight years, I've had two travel nurse contracts cancel early. Both times, the nurse paid through the end of their notice because the prorated daily rate made it simple. I had a vacancy for maybe three weeks before the next nurse arrived. That's the cost of this niche.

If you depend on that rent to cover the mortgage every single month, short-term furnished rentals might not be for you. The screening process is lighter, but the vacancy risk is higher. I always kept a cash reserve equal to two months of expenses when I rented furnished units. It saved me during a hospital slowdown in 2020.

A signed hospital contract already did the background check and drug screening. The 50-mile distance tells me they intend to finish the assignment. A month-to-month lease with daily proration means a cancellation doesn't turn into an eviction. For a travel nurse, that's all the screening I need. For a regular long-term applicant, I still want the full file.