[nanci2539]

I didn't want to hijack the thread on Mail Delivery for residents so I thought I would post a separate question.

We plan on renting for a month or two until we buy our TV home.

What's the best way to handle mail delivery? Should we just get a PO Box or is there another way to handle it?

[redwitch]

I think the best way would be to have someone FedEx or UPS the important mail -- either upon arrival or once a week. I just don't trust the USPS enough to think they would get it right even though they do have a service to do vacation forwards. Otherwise, I'd guess either rent a mailbox or, if you know someone here, maybe ask that the mail be forwarded to their address.

[njgranny]

We spent two months in Florida and had our mail forwarded to us. They only forward the first class mail which was fine. I don't know how it would work in The Villages, though, since they have the mailboxes.

We told them to end the forwarding about a week and a half before we returned home, and had it held for that period.

Everything worked out fine.

[swrinfla]

Village Pack n Ship stores (our very own version of The UPS Store) have rental mail boxes. A three-month renter behind me used the one at Colony Plaza, said it was a quite satisfactory arrangement. Yes, he had to travel further to get his mail than those using a regular postal station, but, as he admitted, he wasn't getting much worthwhile mail anyway!
SWR

[dadspet]

When we rented from the VIllages for a month we had to have USPS forward our mail to the post office where we would wait in a long line evertime we had to pick it up.
When we rented from a private individual we just had the USPS forward it to that address then stopped it when we returned. It took a week or so to straighten out but it worked ok.
Now as season owners we have the USPS forward to our house and it seems to work good. The only issue we have is they only froward magazines for 2 months.

Whoever owns your rental house has a set of mailbox keys. We give them to our renters and their mail is forwarded to our mailboxes just like the full time residents. As long as the house address is on the mail and the mailman is aware it's a rental, he puts the mail in the box for them. Since we live right next door to our rental, it's easy to transfer the mailbox keys from renter to renter. So far, none lost.

[nhsnowbird]

We were in TV for three months this winter and we were lucky enough to have the use of the owner's mailbox. We had our mail forwarded until about almost two weeks before we left TV. When we got home, we went to the Post Office and picked up our mail ... worked well. They do not forward catalogs (didn't miss them anyway). Good luck with whatever you decide. We really didn't have any problems.