Sometimes, when one of your tenants moves out they fail to change their address right away – this is not too uncommon, eh? An easy way to handle the mail if you have a forwarding address is to take a sharpie marker and cross out the current address and also cross out the bar code along the bottom of the envelope (if you don’t do this, then it will automatically come right back to your address). Then write, “Please forward: ” and then the new address. This way, you don’t have to pay any postage to send it to them, don’t have to leave it somewhere for them, and you don’t have to just do a Return to Sender – they will get their mail faster. Of course, you can only do this while you are in control of the place – once you get a new tenant then their stuff will get Returned to Sender. However, by then, they should’ve gotten their change of address straightened out anyway. I got this information by calling USPS directly and also after a visit to the Post Office – that’s all the lady did there. Hope this helps someone else!
Here’s a pic of the bar code crossed out:
