Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

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Strummer
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Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by Strummer »

We're going to be selling our home in the summer and plan on taking a couple months to explore different locations (in different states) before we commit to buying another one. This means we will have no fixed address for that time, and it raises a question about how to receive our mail. My initial thought was to obtain a PO Box in a convenient location and forward it there until we have a new, permanent address.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation? How did you handle it? In hindsight, how did it work for you? Would you do anything differently?

Thanks in advance for your replies!
sport
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by sport »

Perhaps there is a friend or relative you could have your mail sent to. That would give you the advantage of them being able to notify you if something that looks important arrives.
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BolderBoy
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by BolderBoy »

Strummer wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 4:55 pmMy initial thought was to obtain a PO Box in a convenient location and forward it there until we have a new, permanent address.
This is what I've done each time that I moved.

The one time I agreed to accept mail for a friend who was "in transit" is the last time I'll ever do it. 14 years later and I'm still getting junk mail for him.
"Never underestimate one's capacity to overestimate one's abilities" - The Dunning-Kruger Effect
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cchrissyy
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by cchrissyy »

if you aren't concerned about actually receiving and opening the mail in that time period, you could put it on a vacation hold.
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chemocean
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by chemocean »

Consider opening a PO box at a private facility. Many will sort through the junk mail and send the important documents to you on a regular basis and to different address. I inquired and their fee for this service was reasonable
cheerfulcharlie
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by cheerfulcharlie »

This service is pretty slick: https://travelingmailbox.com/

They will scan all your mail for viewing online (and upload copies to your preferred cloud provider as well), and in addition, they will even hold all your mail until you instruct them to destroy or forward your mail to another address.

I would also try to go paperless on as much stuff as possible to minimize your paper mail during this period.
JediMisty
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by JediMisty »

cheerfulcharlie wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 7:46 pm This service is pretty slick: https://travelingmailbox.com/

They will scan all your mail for viewing online (and upload copies to your preferred cloud provider as well), and in addition, they will even hold all your mail until you instruct them to destroy or forward your mail to another address.

I would also try to go paperless on as much stuff as possible to minimize your paper mail during this period.
I appreciate this answer as I will be in this situation this summer, too. I've already been going paperless with everything I can. It's a great idea to employ this service.
z91
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by z91 »

PO Box at the post office.
Barefootgirl
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by Barefootgirl »

In the same situation, I used a virtual mailbox - you can google for the various types available.

The only time it became a problem was when dealing with my auto insurer - they need a "garage-ing" address.

As well, some banks will not accept these types of addresses (there seems to be a master database on the web, lol) - YMMV.

Best of luck...
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TLC1957
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by TLC1957 »

cchrissyy wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 5:29 pm if you aren't concerned about actually receiving and opening the mail in that time period, you could put it on a vacation hold.
The post office gives you a maximum of 30 days for this service then they start delivery. We had this happen to us when we winter in Arizona. Had to have my neighbor collect the mail for us. Sorting through it when we got back 99.9% was junk mail!
Topic Author
Strummer
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Re: Mail and time gap between selling house and entering new home

Post by Strummer »

Thanks for all the replies!

I'm leaning towards a PO Box at this point, although I'm not settled on official USPS vs. private. We're paperless on almost all of our accounts (and I can go paperless on the rest in the next month or two), and while Travelingmailbox.com looks great it's surely overkill for our needs, since we rarely get anything in the mail that's important. We've experienced the drawbacks of the friend or family option ourselves — once a name is associated with a new address, it's a marketable commodity for the junk mail list sellers.
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