Tips to Find Housing as a Travel Healthcare Worker

Video Transcript

00:00

Hey everybody, it's Kevin from Healthcare Hustlers. Today I'll be going over tips to find housing as a travel healthcare worker.

00:09

Some of these tips are from my personal experience I've used to find housing during my travel assignments, and other options that I list here are ones that I haven't tried, but are suitable options.

00:23

So we'll start with the ones that I've personally experienced. The first one, which is the one I usually go to, first is furnish finders.

00:34

So furnish finders, the pros are that it's a low risk of being scammed due to the vetting process of the app.

00:42

The people who list ads on furniture finders have to pay a fee and have to be verified by the app.

00:49

So there's a really low risk of being scammed. Another pro is you're able to read reviews about the places. In most cases, some of the newer places might not have reviews, but it is, is it is there for some housing options.

01:04

You're also able to narrow your search based on whether you want an entire unit, a room, or they even have extended stay hotel options on there as well.

01:16

So I'll pull it up here. So here's the website. You could also download the app on your phone. And here's an example.

01:25

I put in Seattle, Washington, October 31st for the start date. And here's the budget. So I put 2000, and here you could select, filter out whether you want a room, an entire unit, or hotel, or if you want to bring your pair.

01:46

And here are the different options. And again, you could see the pictures on here. You could see when the unit is available.

01:54

And so we'll click on an example. So this place has reviews. It looks, it looks like it's gotten good reviews.

02:09

It has a 90 day, minimum stay. And you could view the pictures here and even shows you where the, nearest hospitals are, which is nice.

02:21

And just also look out for this. There's sometimes a cleaning fee associated that you have to factor in, and you could send the owner a message or call them on their phone.

02:32

Sometimes this isn't always available, but it is an option and it tells you what's all available, a brief description of the place.

02:43

So that's why I personally really like furnish finders is it's, all all the units are furnished, so you don't have to worry about bringing any furniture.

02:53

It's typically safe and verified by the app, so you don't have to worry really about being scammed. And typically the pictures are pretty accurate based on my experience.

03:07

So some of the cons of furnish finders is it's not the cheapest option. I think Craigslist is typically the cheapest option, and that's because of the fee that the, people have to pay to use the app.

03:22

And another con that I've had experienced personally is sometimes the ads are left up even though they are no longer available.

03:33

So for example, here it says this unit's available November 1st, but sometimes when I call, they tell me that it's not actually available until like December or January or something.

03:45

So I've had that happen multiple times with furnish finders. So yeah, those are the only two cons really. But overall, I think it's a really solid app to use to find housing as a travel healthcare worker.

04:01

So the next option is Craigslist. And I've also had good success using Craigslist. You just have to be more careful.

04:08

So the pros with Craigslist are you can typically find the cheapest options on here for my experience. And the ads are typically available based on the date that the ad Wass posted.

04:20

Unlike Furnish finders. So I'm sure most people are familiar with Craigslist, but where I where you go for housing is you wanna go under the, sublet temporary housing.

04:33

This is the places where you could get month to month rent, and typically they're usually furnished. So again, with Craigslist, some of the ads have pictures, some of them don't.

04:46

So we could click on this one right here. So this one has a picture, as a brief description, contact info, and you know, there aren't that many pictures in this one, but some of the ads have more pictures.

05:04

And then you could also look up the location here. So again, with furnish finders, I mean, I'm sorry, with Craigslist you could typically find the cheapest options, but there's also a high risk of being scammed because it's not vetted by any application process.

05:20

So you have to be really careful with Craigslist and there's also no reviews. So, if you're gonna use Craigslist, I would highly recommend viewing the place first in person before you send any money or commit to the place.

05:35

But personally, I've had good experiences finding housing on Craigslist in California. So the next option is Airbnb or vrbo.

05:48

I personally have only used Airbnb, but I've heard that VRBO is the same concept. So the pros are again, a very low risk of being scammed due the due, the apps vetting process.

06:00

And I'm sure the app would compensate you if you, if you did get scammed, you're able to read reviews about the places you can ask.

06:09

You can get discounts typically if you stay 30 days or more. I've used Airbnb on a couple of occasions, and when I stayed for, 30 days or more, I typically got some kind of a discount.

06:22

And what's also nice is you can rent it out for any number of days. You don't have to end the lease at the end of the month, like other, options.

06:31

And the cons are for Airbnb or vrbo, it's typically, the most expensive or one of the most expensive, places of fine housing, especially compared to furnish finders or Craigslist.

06:46

And another thing is, if you only rent it for, let's say three months, and then you end up extending your travel contract and you wanna stay longer, you might not be able to stay at the same place if you didn't give the owner a heads up because somebody else might have rented it during those dates.

07:03

So if you do decide to go this route, I would let the owner know that you might wanna stay longer than the three months, and to see like how many days in advance, you would have to give them a heads up, so they could reserve the spot for you.

07:18

Because what happened with me one time is I reserved the place for a month and I actually wanted to stay there for another month, but it was too late because I didn't give the owner a heads up.

07:28

So somebody else ended up reserving it. And for those who weren't familiar with Airbnb, again here's, the website.

07:38

You could also download the app on your phone and you know, you just search for a location, we'll say, San Diego and then check in date, the first to the 30th, one person, And then I'll give you all these options.

08:01

And I think, here are the discounts. So I think that's because you're staying longer than than 30 day or you're, you're staying 30 days or longer.

08:10

So I think that's why there are discounts for some of these. And again, here's a map where you could look up the different, locations of housing available.

08:23

So another option are extended state hotels. I've actually never used this personally. And so the pros are you get hotel service amenities.

08:34

the cons are it's typically expensive and that's why I've never used them. So here is, a common one is extended state America, and you'll see that, this is for Los Angeles area.

08:49

It looks like the cheapest option here is, $109. So that's about like $3,000 for the month, which is really expensive even in California.

08:59

So that's why I personally have never used extended stay hotels. I would think it'd be more of a last resort or, or if you wanted to only stay use it for a week while you're looking up places, while you're in the area.

09:13

And I'll get to that later in the slide. And so other options are, Facebook housing groups or the Facebook marketplace.

09:24

I've heard good things about this and I've had friends who've used this as a resource. It seems like a safer option compared to Craigslist, cuz at least you can view the person's Facebook profile and you could vet them on there and ask them for their professional information, look them up on LinkedIn to make sure they're legitimate.

09:44

So here's an example is, Bay Area housing. So you just search on Facebook right here, for the area that you're trying to find a job in.

09:53

And, and typically there might be a Facebook group available, where you can look up housing for that area.

10:04

And you know, what's nice too with Facebook is like this person, you could, make a post and ask people, you know that you're looking for a furnished place and this location and this person got a lot of comments.

10:16

So that, that's a plus for Facebook. or using Facebook. Another option is calling apartment complexes in the area and seeing if they offer short term housing, for short term housing.

10:31

This option is typically the last resort and not recommended having the travel company fine housing for you. It might seem nice because you don't have to go through the hassle of finding housing, but you won't make nearly as much money for your travel contract because you make the most money by taking the housing stipend and the meals stip in.

10:53

And by having the travel company, fine housing for you, you give up the housing type end. So you're gonna make a lot less money for your travel contract, which isn't ideal.

11:04

So I wouldn't, I wouldn't recommend this option unless it was like the really last resort and you really wanna work in that area.

11:12

You could also ask your future coworkers or the facility you'll be working at if they have any housing leads that past travelers have used.

11:21

And finally, there's also the option of using your own RV and, staying in an RV park or, or a parking lot that allows you to park your car there.

11:36

So, the next slide, one second. So here are some tips. for housing. I always recommend, doing month to month if possible.

11:52

I know some places might require a, three month commitment, but sometimes they're lenient if they really wanna find a tenant.

12:00

And you seem like an ideal candidate. the reason why is you don't wanna commit to like a three or six month lease only to have your contract canceled after the first month.

12:11

Typically, most contracts have a 30 day notice. So that's why with at least month to month, even if your contract got canceled after like the first week, you would still have that 30 day notice.

12:24

So by the time your your month, ends with housing, you, you won't be committed anytime longer than that.

12:31

So I would always try to, get month to month, with renting any housing. Also, you wanna find a place that's furnished and has utilities included.

12:44

Typically, most of the housing options that I showed have that on there. So, that's also another tip I would recommend.

12:54

And if you're gonna use, furnish finders Craigslist or Facebook, I would recommend writing the hotel first or using Airbnb for the first week.

13:05

That way you could check out the housing options, from furnish finders, Craigslist or Facebook in person. And this prevents you from being scammed or also just making sure that the ad is, the pictures in the ad are real and the house the place looks like, it does in the ad.

13:26

So, I think that's always a good option is to rent a hotel or Airbnb for a week and check out your different housing options.

13:36

And one final tip is, I like this website a lot. It's called niche.com. It's a, great website to read reviews about a city and look up statistics on that area such as crime and, the, they have reviews on there from people that actually live in the city.

13:55

And I'll tell you what the city is like and you know, what part of the cities to avoid and what part of the city they're are safe.

14:01

So, here's the website, niche.com and, so let's look up like, here's Sacramento, California. So, here's some grades that they give the area in general.

14:18

And then another thing I like is it tells you which neighborhoods are really nice, that you might wanna live in.

14:30

And again, here are the statistics crime and everything. And, and this is the part I like as well is the reviews that the, citizens who live in that city, right?

14:47

So you could see what they say. some of this, some of the reviews tell you like which areas of the city are nice to live in.

14:56

So I think this is a really good website when you, when you're not sure about a city and you wanna look up what it's like.

15:02

And here's a map too, and I think I believe the, yeah, the green areas are the darker, the green color, the nicer the area.

15:11

So if you're trying to figure out where to live, you could look on this map and see, which areas are are safer or, and, and so, I really like looking up, cities on niche if I'm not familiar with the city to see what, I'm getting into before I commit to the travel job.

15:29

So yeah, that's all my tips for housing. I'll post this video on my website, travel healthcare hustlers.com and on the Facebook group as well, so you could view it, when you need to.

15:41

And I hope it's a great resource for you if you ever, decided to start your travel contract and need help with finding housing.

15:48

And feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or email if you have any questions. Thanks.