How important to live close to med school and hospital? Will you pay more to live on campus?

[fxok425]

Admin, please remove if it's not allowed. I am not sure if I should post it here, but I want to get your opinion on this for one of my real estate decision since I don't know any medical students or residents.
My parents passed me a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom property right adjacent to a big teaching hospital with a medical school onsite. It basically shares a small street with the hospital. Cross the street is one of the employee parking lot and the AmCare building (I did my rotation there). The house needs a total renovation, cost $$$. I can sell it or renovate it and keep it as a rental. Ideally, I would like to rent to medical students and residents. However, this is a very nice and safe neighborhood, which means it is more expensive than the other three sides surrounding of the medical center (average $1200 a room compared to $ 900 a room if you like to drive further like 15 minutes without traffic). You basically live on campus/hospital.
So my question is: how important for a medical student or resident to live super close to medical school and hospitals? Will you spend extra money to have this convenience?

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[M&L]

very important. i DID pay more to live close to school. Especially during clinical years, when you have to spend a lot of time in the hospital. BTW - please make your apartment pet friendly. If you rent it to pet owners and allow 2+ pets (3 and more) you will find the most loving tenants who will be very grateful

 

[Rapsidy]

Absolutely in a heart beat I would pay a little even moderately extra to be close to my residency. As someone who traveled downtown for the past 2 years for medical school it sucked a huge amount of time; but I wasn’t in a position to move.

When it comes to residency hands down I will pay more if I need to so I can be closer. The amount of time you save by not having to travel far goes a long way on your mental health and ability to do other things.

 

[mvenus929]

I mean, each person will have a different threshold for comfort. I had friends in medical school who literally lived right across the street, whereas me and many of my friends chose to live a short bus ride away (within walking distance, but maybe like a 15-20 minute walk) because it was less expensive.

Will you be able to rent it out? Most certainly. Those who don't want to pay the premium for living on campus will just live in the other locations. Some people will actively choose to not live in campus because they want some separation from work/school, and that's okay too.

 

[Dral]

I lived in several places during med school. All were within walking distance technically. My last year I lived right across the street from the hospital. I paid more but it was worth it to roll out 5 minutes before I had to be where I was supposed to go, not freeze my butt off during the walk in winter, and not sweat my butt off during summer.

 

[fxok425]

Thanks for your input! Another question is: would you prefer to rent by room (furnished), or rent the whole house (un-furnished) with others?

 

[Gilakend]

In medical school, I lived both a 5-minute walk to the hospital and a 1+ hour drive. Personally, I didn't mind driving, but it definitely eats up a lot of time. I found ways to make it productive (thank you Divine Intervention) which definitely made it less of a time sink. For me, the concern fo living further away was overblown.

For reference, after having experienced both I am trying to be within a 30-minute commute to the hospital in residency. I would happily live a little further away to like where I lived better.

However, in your situation, it seems like the option closer to the hospital is better. It's not really that much more and would be convenient.

 

[LunaOri]

It will be easier for you to find renters if you furnish the house --beds, dressers, sofas, dining table and chairs.

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

Living close by gives you a lot of flexibility as a medical student and a resident.

 

[mvenus929]

Thanks for your input! Another question is: would you prefer to rent by room (furnished), or rent the whole house (un-furnished) with others?

I won't comment on the furnished/unfurnished thing (I've never lived in a place that was already furnished), but I would rather choose my roommates if I have to share living space with them.

 

[HopelessMS]

I'll be looking for housing in the next few months (🤞), can you PM me the city your house is located?

 

[Proudfather94]

Admin, please remove if it's not allowed. I am not sure if I should post it here, but I want to get your opinion on this for one of my real estate decision since I don't know any medical students or residents.
My parents passed me a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom property right adjacent to a big teaching hospital with a medical school onsite. It basically shares a small street with the hospital. Cross the street is one of the employee parking lot and the AmCare building (I did my rotation there). The house needs a total renovation, cost $$$. I can sell it or renovate it and keep it as a rental. Ideally, I would like to rent to medical students and residents. However, this is a very nice and safe neighborhood, which means it is more expensive than the other three sides surrounding of the medical center (average $1200 a room compared to $ 900 a room if you like to drive further like 15 minutes without traffic). You basically live on campus/hospital.
So my question is: how important for a medical student or resident to live super close to medical school and hospitals? Will you spend extra money to have this convenience?

Lots of my classmates pay 1200 or more to live close to my school. Time spent traveling is pretty much dead time that could have been spent studying. The role of thumb from what I've heard is that you want to live at 20ish minutes from your school at the furthest.

 

[operaman]

Agree with others - vitally important. I paid extra for that in Med school, residency, and fellowship. Never once did a regret it. Time saved, plus little things like being able to easily come home and eat and shower when on call.

For rentals do the whole thing unless it’s truly separate units like a duplex or something. You’ll have no shortage of renters and it also protects you if someone bails mid lease as the rest of the tenants would be responsible for their share. In practice if it’s a nice place that close, people will stay until they graduate.

 

[Dral]

Also, look into rental management companies. I own a house that I rent out and pay about 10% of the monthly rent for them to manage it. It depends on what you do otherwise, but it’s worth it for me. Whenever there is an issue, I barely hear about it. My agent will text me and let me know that something is wrong, just basically as a heads up. Otherwise, I don’t hear anything about it and the rent just gets deposited into my account every month.

Some people make it their ‘job’ to have a bunch of rental properties and manage them all. If that’s the case, paying for a rental manager is +/-. Flor a single property, I found it’s totally worth it. I don’t want to get a call at 8pm on a Saturday to hear about a plumbing issue and have to deal with getting everything lined up to fix it.

The way it works for me is that routine things get taken care of without any other issue. Things like “Oh the washing machine broke” means I also have to pay for a new washing machine, but that’s fine and what I would expect.

 

[RapidEyeMovementLearning]

If I did medical school over again, I would absolutely live close to campus and have my own apartment no matter the premium.

 

[Tangerine123]

In medical school I lived both extremes. Walking distance from the uni and a 2 hour drive (to live in a townmy family). I preferred the latter up to a certain point, then it just became ridiculous.

Now in residency I live 35mins away from the hospital (10 Minutes walking/20min train ride/5min subway). It's ok-ish.

My family rents a house to medical students that rotate in that same town. And students LOVE it because they don't have to commute from the main city.

Worth the price

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It is always a draw to stay close to your school or training location. That said so many schools have rotation sites that are far away from campus that sometimes I think it is a wash at some schools. If you have family, I would choose differently regarding schools or day care and safety. I think there is an online bulletin board we have here and others that are also used for that purpose.

 

[bGMx]

If you live close, you will have more free time, and your life will be better for it.

 

[Redpancreas]

Admin, please remove if it's not allowed. I am not sure if I should post it here, but I want to get your opinion on this for one of my real estate decision since I don't know any medical students or residents.
My parents passed me a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom property right adjacent to a big teaching hospital with a medical school onsite. It basically shares a small street with the hospital. Cross the street is one of the employee parking lot and the AmCare building (I did my rotation there). The house needs a total renovation, cost $$$. I can sell it or renovate it and keep it as a rental. Ideally, I would like to rent to medical students and residents. However, this is a very nice and safe neighborhood, which means it is more expensive than the other three sides surrounding of the medical center (average $1200 a room compared to $ 900 a room if you like to drive further like 15 minutes without traffic). You basically live on campus/hospital.
So my question is: how important for a medical student or resident to live super close to medical school and hospitals? Will you spend extra money to have this convenience?

Each resident is different. I like my sleep and cherish my Door to Epic (DtE) time which is approximately 15 minutes. Residency would be a lot more miserable if I lived 20 minutes with a commute and value living a 3-5 minute driving distance from my hospital’s parking garage.

I imagine that’s a bit different from someone’s value system with a family/kids.

 

[Styrene]

Living 10 minutes door to door in residency is the best thing ever. Living on campus during med school was also great, but it was certainly more expensive than other options.