Physical Mail

Some residents won’t read email. Some need a formal record. Some violations require certified mail per your bylaws. Physical Mail is the integration that lets HomeHerald send physical mail — letters with the HOA’s letterhead, real stamps, real envelopes — without you doing any printing or stuffing.

When physical mail makes sense

The legitimate reasons to use a letter instead of (or in addition to) email:

• Bylaw requirements — many HOAs require certified mail for fines, lien notices, or warnings
• State law requirements — some states mandate physical mail for specific HOA enforcement actions
• Residents without email — older homeowners, absentee owners, anyone you can’t reach digitally
• Important record-keeping — formal documentation that’s signed for and timestamped
• Escalation gravitas — a real letter says “we’re serious” in a way email can’t

Don’t use it for routine reminders or informational announcements. Email is faster, cheaper, and reaches the same residents.

Setup

Physical Mail is a paid integration. Setup:

1. Go to Configuration → Physical Mail
2. Click Connect
3. You’ll be redirected to the provider’s authorization page
4. Sign in (or create an account)
5. Authorize HomeHerald to send mail on your behalf
6. Return to HomeHerald — you should see “Physical Mail Connected”

You’ll also configure:

• Return address — the HOA’s mailing address that appears on outgoing envelopes
• Default letterhead — uploaded as a PDF or designed in the editor; appears on every outgoing letter
• Signature image (optional) — board members can upload signatures that auto-apply

The Physical Mail integration handles the actual printing, stuffing, stamping, and mailing. You provide the content and recipient.

Costs

Physical Mail charges per letter. Typical pricing (subject to change):

Mail type	Cost per letter
Standard first-class	~$1.50
Certified mail	~$5-7
Certified mail with return receipt	~$7-10

Costs depend on length, color vs. black-and-white, and class of mail. The actual rate appears in HomeHerald before you send.

Charges go on your HOA’s Physical Mail account, not HomeHerald’s bill. Manage billing through the provider’s dashboard.

Sending a letter

Three paths.

Path 1 — from a request or violation

Most common. When you’re handling a violation that requires letter notification:

1. Open the violation
2. Click Send via Physical Mail
3. Pick the letter template (Notice / Formal Warning / Fine Notice / etc.)
4. The recipient is auto-filled from the linked property
5. The body is auto-filled from the violation details
6. Edit the letter text if needed
7. Choose mail class (Standard or Certified)
8. Click Send

The provider receives the letter, prints it, mails it. The action is logged on the violation with a tracking link.

Path 2 — from the announcement composer

For one-off letters:

1. Go to Announcements in the admin sidebar
2. Pick Channel: Physical Letter
3. Select recipients (specific properties, or by criteria — e.g., all overdue properties)
4. Compose the letter
5. Send

This bulk-mails everyone in the recipient list. Useful for community-wide notices that need physical reach (annual meeting, voting reminders to absentee owners).

Path 3 — manual / one-off

For ad-hoc letters not tied to a request:

1. Open Formal Letters in the admin sidebar
2. Select recipient (a property, a specific address)
3. Compose
4. Send

Templates

Letters with the same structure get used over and over. Save them as templates:

• First violation notice — friendly heads-up
• Formal violation notice — escalated, references bylaw
• Fine assessed notice — formal, includes balance and pay link
• Lien intent notice — pre-legal, very formal
• Annual meeting notice — required by some state laws
• Welcome letter — for new residents who didn’t sign up online

Each template can include variables (resident name, property address, balance due, fine amount) that fill in automatically when you send.

What the resident receives

Letters arrive in real envelopes with:

• The HOA’s letterhead (your uploaded design)
• The resident’s name and property address
• The body of the letter (formatted, professional)
• The board member’s signature (if configured)
• Return address: the HOA’s mailing address

Standard mail takes 3-7 business days. Certified mail includes a tracking number and signed receipt — you’ll see the receipt status update in HomeHerald when the resident signs for it.

Tracking

Every Physical Mail letter has a tracking record:

• Sent — letter dispatched to the mail provider
• In production — being printed
• Mailed — handed to USPS
• Delivered — confirmed via tracking (certified) or estimated (standard)
• Signed — recipient signed (certified with return receipt only)
• Returned undeliverable — bad address; letter came back

For violations or legal matters, the tracking record is your proof of delivery. Save / export the tracking PDF for your records.

When to use Certified Mail

Some violations or legal actions require certified mail:

• Fines that the resident may dispute — certified provides proof they received notice
• Pre-lien notices — many states require certified mail before filing a lien
• Annual meeting notices — some bylaws require certified for voting matters
• Cease-and-desist — anything that could end up in court

If your bylaws or state law require certified mail, use it. The extra cost is small compared to the legal protection.

For routine notices (first violation, friendly reminder), standard mail is fine.

Common situations

”Resident says they didn’t receive the letter”

Check the tracking record. If it shows delivered (or signed for, in the case of certified), you have proof. Send the tracking PDF to them. If it shows returned undeliverable, you have a wrong address — update the property record and resend.

”Letter came back as ‘address unknown’ but the property is occupied”

Means the Physical Mail provider couldn’t deliver to the address as stored in HomeHerald. Possible causes:

• Address typo on the property record
• New mailbox setup not yet recognized by USPS
• Resident has a P.O. box and physical address differs

Update the address on the property and resend. If it keeps happening, the Physical Mail provider has support for address verification.

”We need to send the same letter to all 200 properties”

Bulk send via the announcement composer (path 2 above). Pick “All properties” as recipients. Physical Mail will bill ~$300 (200 × $1.50) for the batch.

For very large communities (1000+), check with the Physical Mail provider for volume discounts. They typically have reduced per-letter rates above certain thresholds.

”We don’t want to use Physical Mail — we’ll print our own letters”

Fine. Just don’t enable Physical Mail. The letter-sending features in HomeHerald are tied to the Physical Mail integration; if you skip it, you’ll send letters the old-fashioned way (print, stuff, stamp). HomeHerald can still generate the letter PDF for you to print.

”How much should we budget?”

Rough estimate: 1-2 letters per property per year for routine HOAs, 3-5 per “active enforcement” property. For a 100-property community: 100-500 letters/year × $1.50-$5 = $150-$2,500/year on letters.

If your community sends a lot of certified letters, budget closer to the upper end. The cost-per-violation is small but adds up.

Where to go next

• Issuing a fine — when fines need formal notice
• Escalations and repeat offenders — escalation tiers and which require letters
• Announcements — for community-wide bulk letters
• Integrations — managing Physical Mail and other connected services