Charges for Mass Mailings

Started by NickK • 6 replies • 1616 views

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NickK (Florida)
Posts: 30

Posted:

What does your Management Co charge for mass mailings? We inherited a contract, the developer signed last year, which does not specify the cost. A recent conversation with the management company revealed they are charging $2.50 per house for any mass mailing up to four pages. Sounds steep and totally unreasonable.

CharlesW1 (Georgia)
Posts: 826

Posted:

NickK,

That does seem rather expensive. I looked it too bulk mailing some time ago for our monthly newsletters and realize, at that point, that there was just way to many things we wanted to improve upon in our community.

Years ago our community was paying for postage every month or every other month (275) homes, that’s a lot of money that can be better spent.

For the past four months or so, my wife and the board hand delivers the newsletter, we save ($107.25) a month in postage alone and our voices are still being heard in our community.

What are you mailing to homeowners? Do you use envelops? Do you use return address labels or address labels?
-Like a newsletter could be folded in half and addressed, and then mailed. No envelope or return address label needed.

You should receive some very good advice from the people of this discussion forum.
Words can’t express just how much I’ve learn for the question answered here. I have learn so much!

Best of luck to you
Chuck W.

Charles E. Wafer Jr.

RogerB (Colorado)
Posts: 5,067

Posted:

Nick,
For comparison we charge $1.08 per home for up to 4 mass mailings per year. Beyone 4 mailings there is an extra cost for the time involved. We use a 2 window envelope so no mailing labels are needed. This eliminates 2 labels which cost $.05 each plus the extra time involved in printing and attaching the labels. The cost of $1.08 consists of printing four pages (under 1 oz) at $0.15 per page and 1 stamped envelop $0.48. Have you considered a website and/or email to reduce mailing costs?

NickK (Florida)
Posts: 30

Posted:

Thanks for the responses.

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

we charge 37 cents each letter, $1 for a box of 50 envelopes, and a couple times a year, we have to buy an ink cartridge for the printer ($30).

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

Not attempting to defend the $2.50, but a quick breakdown shows:

copy expenses: 15 cents/page, 4 pages = 60 cents
envelope (window version?) 2 cents each
stamp 37 cents
printed address labels 10 cents each (label, ink replacement, etc)

So, for a mailing of an annual budget, welcome to 2007 letter, and a dues reminder (4 pages), you can rack up $1.09 in supplies alone.

Then, figure labor for stuffing envelopes (unknown to me), perhaps transport time and gas to post office (pennies per letter), and a $1.50 cost for each letter doesn't seem unreasonable. Folding letters and stuffing envelopes is boring work, but if you pay someone $6 and hour to do it, you gotta factor that cost divided by the number of envelopes stuffed per hour, etc..

GregoryB (Florida)
Posts: 15

Posted:

Nick
what are the mailings for we have come up with some creative ways to pay for them by generating income from outside sources.
Greg

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