Life of the Traveling Wife

Hey, friend! This week we are talking about all things related to housing as a travel nurse! And I’ll also be sharing what we were up to during our 2nd and 3rd week here in Tampa! If you haven’t checked out the previous blog, click here. Be sure to check that out as this blog references speaking with agency recruiters during the onboarding process. If you have anything in particular you’d like me to touch on in the future about travel nursing or about us, send an email with your questions to lifeofthetravelingwife@gmail.com or comment down below the blog post! I can’t wait to hear from you!

What does housing look like while travel nursing?

After you have created accounts on different travel agency websites, you will see a brief overview of the contract each hospital is offering. In regards to housing, take a look at the assignment bio to see the location of the travel assignment and what the agency lists as your housing stipend per week. You will want to keep in mind that each assignment generally lasts 13 weeks, so finding a place with a short term lease is important. You can search for a fully furnished apartment, live in an extended-stay hotel, find roommates to split costs with, buy an RV (or convert something into one), rent an Airbnb, VRBO, etc. That’s the beauty of watching this new journey unfold. You get to make the best of whatever you choose, and really, there’s no wrong choice. However, understanding what is offered in your nursing contract will help narrow down where to start in all these housing possibilities. So let’s break it down together.

Location, Location, Location!

You’ll hear that repeated in any show on HGTV because location affects everything! Choosing an assignment in closer proximity to a city will most likely present you with greater quantities of short term rentals. More options may mean more affordable housing as well. Additionally, it can offer a variety of activities and places to see without having to drive a large distance. Popular locations such as travel destinations may also present challenges. If you have chosen an RV lifestyle, finding an RV park and hook ups might be difficult as some parks or campsites require reservations six to nine months in advance. There are times that a hospital will not be located near a city resulting in no other choice but to use housing that the agency provides. So depending on your travel assignment schedule and lifestyle your location may help you decide what to do on your days off.

How to Maximize Your Housing Stipend

While browsing job listings on a travel agency’s website you will see two numbers, the first will be your total weekly pay from the hospital and the second will be your weekly tax free housing stipend. For some agencies you may have to talk with the recruiter first to see what your housing stipend is because it will not be listed on the website. The recruiter will ask if you would like them to find housing for you. If you say yes, then they will use the full amount to find housing; in which, you will only receive your hourly wage from the hospital. Depending on the location, if you can find housing cheaper than your stipend, you can save this money instead of the recruiter using it.

Fully Furnished & Short Term Flexibility

If a hospital is still in need or if you are really enjoying your location, you may have the option to extend your assignment. So making sure that your short term lease is flexible from the beginning will be to your advantage if you do choose to extend. Great options for this could be a monthly stay on Airbnb or VRBO. These sites allow you to chat with a host and if the host is kind enough, you might be able to work out a deal with them. Many of these properties are fully furnished and come with kitchenware, linens, etc., but not all do, so check the listing for the items you may not be bringing on your adventure. Also, be sure to check out what the actual cost would be after all the fees are added onto the rent. We found that these sites were more expensive in Tampa for the time period we are living here and had less square feet than other fully furnished apartments in the area. It’s all about weighing your pros and cons.

Our Experience with Housing

For us, while the RV life was extremely tempting at the beginning, we decided to look for and find fully furnished apartments to rent. With time, that might change into another one of the options listed above or into something we hadn’t even considered before. In the meantime, choosing a fully furnished apartment allowed us to minimize what we needed to bring and instead freed us up to pack items that we wanted to use recreationally. Finding a fully furnished apartment also saved us costs on not needing to use a U-Haul truck from Pittsburgh to Tampa.

The company we found and have our lease with is called Landing. It is a fairly new company that offers short term fully furnished housing at an affordable rate. Landing rents out their own spaces in apartment buildings and fully finishes them with their own brand items from furniture to every essential you would need. Landing properties are located in more than 350+ cities around the country. One of the best perks about Landing is that the minimum your lease has to be is 30 days in one apartment. After that you can bounce around to another Landing location with as little as a 14 day notice. We are currently using Landing’s Explorer package. This gives us a cheaper rate at any Landing apartment than what it is listed for because we agreed to stay with this company for at least 6 months. It seemed like the perfect fit for us as we started our first 3 months in Tampa. Once our time here is nearing its end and after we accept the next travel assignment in whatever state that may be, we will find another Landing in that city to rent!

Week 2 Adventures

[March 8] We drove to Cypress Point Park Beach to enjoy the sunset. We weren’t the only ones who had this idea. Many others like us laid out their blankets along the shore line and watched the setting sun beyond the water and distant buildings. There were a few people kite foiling as well. We learned that this is very similar to kite surfing/boarding, but kite foiling has an additional fin along the bottom of the board to allow you to ride above the surface of the water! After the sun had set, we used the remaining light to have a catch with our baseball gloves in the park. Once it was too dark to see, we headed back to our apartment in Midtown Tampa and caught the second half of the trivia night that our complex was hosting on the lawn.

[March 9] This was the day that I had officially launched and told everyone about my blog post! It was so encouraging to see all the love and support about our new adventure to Tampa and my documenting of it! Moments later I received a text from our good friend, Erica, who had moved to Tampa from Long Island, NY a few years ago with her family, saying that she was in the area and wanted to stop by to say hello. We caught up and I got to show her around our apartment and all the common areas in Midtown Tampa. Then Bobby and I went to Armature Works for lunch… “a food-lover’s dream and a truly innovative concept in Tampa. The 22,000 sq-ft industrial market features an open floor plan with communal seating surrounded by restaurants showcasing the top chefs and restaurateurs in the Bay Area.” After, we went back to Cypress Point Park, this time to use their disc golf course. This was our first time really walking through a park with some wooded areas in Florida. So we quickly noticed all of the many lizards scurrying around. Towards the end we saw a snake slithering through the grass towards us. After that we decided that anytime we would see wildlife a bit too up close and personal, we would say “Nature”!

[March 10] It was a little rainy this afternoon so we headed to the International Plaza & Bay Street mall. A story from this day was that we found a lost phone and were able to reunite it with its owner! The owner of the phone and her friend ended up being on the opposite end of the mall by the time they realized the phone was missing. It was also the first time any of us had been in the mall, since we just moved down to Tampa and the two girls came to Tampa from Maine for their spring break, so trying to find a good spot to meet up to return the phone was a bit comical.

[March 11] We decided to go back to the Skatepark of Tampa (SPOT) with our skateboards and helmets (of course). It was our first time really skating since our college days when Bobby and I along with friends would go to the skatepark near our campus. Something really awesome about the skate community is that everyone wants to see one another succeed. You’ll hear the encouragement and cheers by the sound of someone tapping a skateboard on the floor or any other wooden surface near them when you do land something you’ve been working on. It’s an incredible feeling! We became more and more daring to try new things throughout the day. We both ended up with what is called a hipper. And it is what it sounds like- it’s when you slam the ground directly on your hip. Some of the advice from those around us after we had each taken a fall was, “might as well try it again while you are already hurt”.

[March 12] MOVING DAY! Our wonderful two weeks at Midtown ended, so we packed up our cars again and drove over to a different apartment complex than we had originally thought we would be going to. We spent most of this day moving into our new space and unpacking everything to get settled and make this apartment feel like home for the next 11 weeks.

Week 3 Adventures

[March 13] It’s always hard trying to find a church in a new area. But we listened to a sermon online from Radiant Church when we first came to Tampa and really enjoyed the pastor’s message. A few days later, this church was recommended to us by cousins of mine who used to live in Tampa. So today we were able to go check out the church in person!

[March 17] We went to a food truck festival that happens every 3rd Thursday in Tampa along East Madison St. at Grand Central at Kennedy. It was such a nice night out and we got to try drinks and food from a few of the trucks. There was also live music. We ended the night getting tiramisu flavored gelato at Gelato-Go and it was so good!

[March 18] We went to Fort De Soto Beach again for the day. It was perfectly calm with a few ripples of waves and the water was so warm when we went in. That night we tried Eddie & Sam’s NY Pizza. Usually I am a bit skeptical of out of NY pizza that says it’s NY pizza, but this was absolutely delicious!

[March 19] We started the morning with breakfast at Milkin’ It. Everything in this eatery is cereal themed. A few interesting things that they do here is use milk that has been infused by cereal in their iced coffee as well as in their eggs if you get an egg sandwich. They also can put cereal on your bagel or ice cream too. Then we drove out to see a Bass Pro Shop in Brandon, FL. Then we went to Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry. This was definitely geared more for kids, but we didn’t mind. Everything was designed for an interactive, hands-on experience which allowed you to learn about a lot of new things.

Let’s Get Connected

As I’ve shared before, SUBSCRIBE down below! It’ll be the best way for me to share with you the details of our journey. AND I would love to hear from you!! Leave a comment. Have questions? Send them to me and I will do my best to incorporate the answers to all your questions in future blog posts! Do you know someone who is looking into travel nursing soon or in the future? Share these tips on housing with them! Signing out from the Sunshine State. 🌞🌴

Madison Basile

Long Island, NY> Lynchburg, VA> Pittsburgh, PA> Tampa, FL 🏡