Renting a room to travel nurses works best when you treat the arrangement as a mid-term rental built around a 13-week assignment cycle rather than a short-term stay or a conventional year-long lease. That single fact drives everything else: how you price the room, which local rules apply, what your insurer needs to know, how the lease is structured, and how the income shows up on your tax return. Get those pieces right and a spare bedroom becomes a predictable source of income with a built-in turnover schedule.
Set Up the Room for a 13-Week Stay
Travel nurses arrive with suitcases, not furniture. A queen bed, a solid dresser, and a desk with a decent chair cover the essentials. Blackout curtains matter more than they sound: a large share of these nurses work overnight shifts and need to sleep through daylight. Internet of at least 100 Mbps is a practical necessity because charting and agency communication happen at home after shifts.
Bundle utilities into the monthly rate. Nurses on 13-week contracts do not want to set up and cancel accounts, and separating costs invites disputes. Kitchen access is a genuine draw because most nurses receive a meals-and-incidentals stipend they are trying to stretch. A private or semi-private bathroom and on-site laundry round out what experienced hosts consider the minimum competitive package.
Price Around the Housing Stipend
Most travel nurses receive a tax-free housing stipend from their staffing agency, and agencies often set that stipend based on General Services Administration per diem lodging rates for the area where the assignment is located. The GSA publishes a standard CONUS lodging rate that applies to most of the country, with higher rates for roughly 300 non-standard areas like major metro regions.1U.S. General Services Administration. Per Diem Rates Pricing your room at or below the applicable GSA rate lets a nurse cover rent entirely from the stipend, which makes your listing far more attractive than one that forces them to dip into taxable wages.
Budget for turnover cleaning and disclose it before signing. A single bedroom with a shared bathroom typically runs $50 to $120 for a thorough clean that includes linens, restocking, and a quality check; a larger private suite costs more. Whatever you charge, put the exact amount in the lease. Some hosts build cleaning into the monthly rent, others charge it as a one-time fee. Either works if the tenant sees it up front.
Check Zoning, Permits, and Local Taxes First
Before you list anywhere, check your local zoning and land use codes. Many jurisdictions define a short-term rental as anything under 30 consecutive days, which triggers permit requirements, occupancy taxes, and sometimes outright bans in residential zones. A 13-week nursing stay usually falls outside that definition, but usually is not always. Some municipalities regulate mid-term rentals separately, and others cap the number of unrelated adults who can live in a single-family home regardless of how long they stay.
Many cities require a residential rental permit or business license before you can legally accept a paying tenant. These permits typically involve a basic safety inspection covering smoke detectors, egress windows, electrical systems, and general habitability, plus an annual fee that varies widely by jurisdiction. Some cities turn permits around in a week; others take a month or longer if an inspector needs to visit in person.
A 13-week stay also affects whether you owe local lodging or occupancy taxes. Many states and cities exempt stays of 30 consecutive days or longer from transient occupancy taxes, so most travel nurse arrangements fall outside that obligation. The exemption is not universal, so confirm the threshold in your jurisdiction before assuming you are clear.
Fair Housing When You Live in the Home
Federal fair housing law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability when renting housing. When you rent a room in a home you also live in, a provision sometimes called the Mrs. Murphy exemption narrows that reach. Under federal law, owner-occupied dwellings with no more than four independent living units are exempt from most of the Fair Housing Act’s tenant-selection requirements, as long as the owner lives in one of the units.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 3603 – Effective Dates of Certain Prohibitions
That gives you more discretion in choosing a housemate based on lifestyle compatibility, such as preferring someone who works nights and keeps a quiet daytime schedule. But the exemption has a hard limit: it does not cover discriminatory advertising. Even if you qualify for the exemption in your selection decisions, you cannot post a listing that expresses a preference or limitation based on any protected class.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 3603 – Effective Dates of Certain Prohibitions Keep listings focused on the room, the lease terms, and the practical details of sharing a home. Many states and cities have their own fair housing laws with narrower or no exemptions, so the federal carve-out does not guarantee you are fully in the clear.
Update Your Insurance Before Anyone Moves In
A standard homeowners policy typically does not cover business activities conducted in the home, and renting a room on a regular basis to paying tenants qualifies as a business activity. If a travel nurse or one of their guests is injured on your property and you have only a standard homeowners policy, your insurer may deny the claim entirely.3Insurance Information Institute. Coverage for Renting Out Your Home
You have a few options. Some insurers offer a rental endorsement or rider that adds limited coverage for tenant-related incidents to your existing homeowners policy. This is the cheapest route and usually the narrowest. A dedicated landlord or rental dwelling policy is more comprehensive: it includes liability coverage if a tenant is injured due to a hazard you failed to address, plus fair-rental-income coverage that compensates you for lost rent if the property becomes uninhabitable due to a covered event. Landlord policies generally cost about 25% more than a standard homeowners policy. Call your insurer before the first tenant moves in, not after something goes wrong. Require tenants to carry renters insurance for their own belongings, because neither your homeowners policy nor a landlord policy covers a tenant’s personal property.
Write a Lease That Matches the Contract
A written lease is not optional, even for 13 weeks. Without one, the tenancy may default to month-to-month under state law, which changes the rules for how and when either side can end it. At a minimum the lease should cover exact start and end dates matching the nursing contract, monthly rent, which utilities are included, the security deposit amount, house rules for shared spaces, guest policies, and a clear move-out date with no ambiguity about holdover consequences.
Build the end date into a fixed-term lease so the tenancy expires naturally when the nursing contract ends. Once a nurse moves in under a lease and pays rent, they have the same eviction protections as any other renter. You cannot change the locks or remove belongings if a dispute arises; ending the tenancy early requires a formal legal process that varies by state and generally starts with written notice.
Security deposit limits vary dramatically. Some states cap deposits at one month’s rent, others allow two or three months, and a sizable number impose no cap. Whatever you charge, the lease must spell out the deposit amount, the conditions under which you can withhold funds, and the timeline for returning the balance. Most states require you to return the deposit within 14 to 30 days after the tenant vacates, with an itemized list of any deductions. Failing to follow your state’s rules can expose you to penalties, sometimes double or triple the withheld amount.
Screen the Nurse, Not Just the Applicant
Screening a travel nurse differs from screening a traditional tenant because employment is temporary by design and income includes tax-free stipends that do not appear on a W-2. Start by requesting a copy of the nursing assignment contract. That document confirms the employing facility, the assignment dates, and the compensation structure, which together verify both the need for temporary housing and the ability to pay rent.
Ask About the Tax Home
Travel nurses receive tax-free housing and meals stipends only if they maintain a permanent tax home, which the IRS generally treats as the area where the taxpayer’s regular place of business is located. For nurses who move between assignments, the tax home is typically the location where they maintain a permanent residence and incur duplicate living expenses. A nurse who does not maintain a tax home may lose eligibility for tax-free stipends, which could affect their ability to afford your room at the agreed rate. Asking whether the nurse maintains a permanent residence elsewhere is a reasonable part of the screening conversation.
Consumer Reports and Adverse Action Notices
Third-party screening services typically charge $35 to $75 for a combined credit report and criminal background check, a cost most landlords pass to the applicant. Before pulling any consumer report, federal law requires a permissible purpose, and you must certify to the reporting agency that you will use the report only for housing purposes.4Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know
If you deny an applicant based partly or entirely on information in a consumer report, federal law requires you to provide an adverse action notice. That notice must include the name, address, and phone number of the reporting agency; a statement that the agency did not make the denial decision; and a notice of the applicant’s right to dispute inaccurate information and obtain a free copy of the report within 60 days.4Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know Skipping the adverse action notice is one of the easiest ways for a small landlord to stumble into a federal violation. References from previous landlords or nursing supervisors add practical insight that credit numbers cannot capture; a nurse with a thin file, strong professional references, and a verified assignment contract is often a lower-risk tenant than someone with a higher score and no verifiable employment.
Report the Rental Income
Rent the room for fewer than 15 days in the year and you do not report the income at all, but you also cannot deduct rental expenses. Rent it for 15 days or more and every dollar of rent becomes reportable income.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 280A – Disallowance of Certain Expenses in Connection With Certain Activities A single 13-week nursing contract blows past that threshold on day one.
Report rental income and expenses on Schedule E (Form 1040), Part I. Because you are renting part of your home rather than the entire property, you must divide shared expenses between personal use and rental use.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property The two common allocation methods are number of rooms and square footage. If your home has 10 rooms and you rent one, 10% of shared costs like mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, and utilities become deductible rental expenses. Costs that relate only to the rented room, such as furniture bought for the tenant or a separate internet line, are fully deductible.
Depreciation and Its Trade-Off
You can depreciate the rental portion of your home’s structure. The depreciable basis is the lesser of the home’s fair market value or your adjusted basis on the date you converted the room to rental use, minus land value. Residential rental property is depreciated over 27.5 years using the straight-line method.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property Furniture and appliances are classified as 5-year property and depreciate faster. When you eventually sell your home, the IRS recaptures the depreciation you claimed, which can reduce the tax benefit of the home-sale exclusion. Talk to a tax professional before claiming depreciation on a room in your primary residence.
Other Deductible Expenses
Beyond the proportionate share of mortgage interest, taxes, insurance, and utilities, you can deduct repairs and maintenance to the rental space, advertising fees, and any professional services like accounting or legal help related to the rental activity.7Internal Revenue Service. Tips on Rental Real Estate Income, Deductions and Recordkeeping Keep receipts for everything. If your deductible expenses exceed rental income for the year, your ability to claim a net loss is limited when you also use the dwelling as your home, so do not assume losses will offset other income.
Document the Condition at Move-In and Move-Out
A written move-in condition report protects both sides when the security deposit is on the line. Walk through the room together and document floors, walls, ceiling, windows, doors, closet, light fixtures, and any furnishings you provide. In the bathroom, note tile, caulking, fixtures, and mirrors. Record the state of any appliances the tenant will use. Take dated photos or video, and have both parties sign the report. Without this documentation, you will have a difficult time justifying any deposit deductions, and the tenant will have no proof that damage was pre-existing.
Schedule a move-out inspection on the last day of the lease, walk through the same checklist, and compare. Normal wear from a 13-week stay is not deductible. Stained carpets, broken blinds, or holes in walls are. Return the deposit balance within the timeframe your state requires, with an itemized list of any deductions. Prompt, transparent handling of the deposit is the single best thing you can do for your reputation with the travel nursing community, where word travels fast through agency networks and online housing groups.