Please reach out to us if you cannot find an answer to your question.
A Land Lease allows someone to purchase and own a home without the expense of purchasing any land or upfront infrastructure development costs. Here at JennLake, all owners are responsible to maintain their home and lot to community standards and pay for their own utilities. Homeowners pay the property taxes only for the home itself, and they maintain insurance only for the home itself. JennLake maintains the overall non-residential areas of the property, infrastructure, and enforces the rules and community standards.
JennLake Land Leases are automatically renewed Month-to-Month. Owners are not locked into any long-term lease agreement and can sell their home at any time. We typically have a waiting list of pre-approved Interested Buyers. Owners can also elect to remove the home from JennLake with 60 days notice if the process is coordinated with management and a licensed transporter.
JennLake does not own the homes, nor do we have a retailer license. Our commitment is to always represent what is in the best interest of JennLake as a whole entity. We do not get paid to represent any buyer, seller, retailer, or contractor, which allows us to focus on ensuring high standards are maintained. Because every home installed at JennLake must be under an active Land Lease Agreement, we are involved in the buying and selling process.
JennLake Meadows utilizes auto-renewing month-to-month leases. That means you are not locked into any long-term arrangement with us and can notify us at any time that you are planning to sell or remove your home from the property. There is no penalty for not renewing your lease. We do require that you sell the home to someone approved to live here if they plan to keep the home on our property. If you sell to someone who cannot be approved or wishes to remove the home, the process must be coordinated with us to ensure a licensed transporter is involved and we are able to oversee making sure the underground utilities are properly disconnected from the home, the lot and property are not damaged, and the lot is clean of all debris and objects. We will NOT release YOU from your lease until all of this has been accomplished, so YOU remain our primary point of contact and are responsible for making sure the home is removed according to our rules EVEN IF YOU HAVE SOLD THE HOME to someone else.
Because we utilize a month-to-month lease, we do not “evict” homeowners. We do reserve the right not to renew the lease. This very rarely happens. When it does, if the home is in good condition, we will typically just help you find an approved buyer. If the home is not in good enough condition to stay installed on the property, you will need to follow the process above to remove the home with a licensed transporter and make sure the lot is left in good condition. PLEASE read the “FAQ – What is the Process to Remove a Home?” BEFORE you sell the home and make sure that your buyer also understands this process.
1. Lot Rent Pays For
2. Lot Rent Does NOT Pay For
3. Grey Areas Worth Noting
A. Driveways:
i. Overall, JennLake is responsible to maintain the driveways. That said, if we believe the damage is a result of sloppy parking or a very heavy vehicle, we may require the owner to cover the cost of the repair. There are a large number of driveways that need to have the railroad ties replaced and gravel added / spread and potentially damaged culverts repaired or replaced. A list of driveways we plan to repair, as well as completed driveways, is available in the office.
ii. If you see exposed culvert (black plastic tube under the driveway) where there is no longer gravel covering it for protection, please notify the office. We would much rather add gravel to protect a culvert than hire a contractor with heavy equipment to completely rip out the culvert and replace it. If it has been damaged because it was exposed and driven over, and the office was NOT notified, we may invoice the owner for the repairs.
iii. Over the past decade there has been a significant increase in the number of non-residential heavy trucks being used as primary residential vehicles, usually by those who never actually use the vehicles for their intended purpose of ranching, construction, hauling heavy trailers, etc. When JLM first opened, most residents were large animal vet students who came from farm backgrounds. They did not drive heavy trucks (most did not drive trucks at all). The truck manufacturing industry and lobbyists and marketing have created a situation where there are many heavy, lifted trucks being driven for no good reason. We spend a lot of resources and time trying to keep up with the damage caused by these trucks. We are slowly working our way through driveway repairs using a prioritized list. We are now tracking when repairs are done so that we can know how often we have to re-do them. Damage caused by residents either not parking properly or having non-residential vehicles will need to be paid for by the owners.
iv. You may notice that the roads in the Phase 3 expansion area (Dixie Way and Jennings Loop) are inverted concrete (drainage flows in the middle of the road into designated off-flow areas), and there are no driveway culverts. This is by design because we HATE the driveways and culverts in the older section of the community. We sympathize that you probably hate them also. JennLake IS responsible for ensuring the culverts are functioning. It is extremely difficult and time consuming to keep up with them, but we get to them as we can. If a culvert / concrete cap has been damaged due to a VEHICLE turning or pushing up against it, or the occasional situation where somebody drives OVER a concrete culvert cap, then we may invoice the owner for the repairs. Same goes for pushed out railroad ties. Recently we have started trying to reinforce them after repairs with t-posts to help hold them in place.
B. Drainage:
i. JennLake is responsible for the overall property drainage, and we strive to keep the dedicated property drainage areas free of debris and routinely check the creeks where feasible for any blockages such as beaver dams or limbs blocking water flow.
ii. JennLake is NOT responsible for drainage that is on a specific lot itself, other than the overall flow AROUND the lot (alongside the road), potentially BETWEEN lots, and potentially BEHIND the lots. It is critical that homeowners do not unintentionally do things like add walkways or structures that impedes the overall flow of property drainage.
iii. The older homes (anything prior to the 2018 Expansion and new lots) were NOT installed on raised compacted pads. This requirement began after the Katrina natural disaster, and all modern manufactured home installations are required to be inspected and certified by a Mississippi Fire Marshall shortly after the installation occurs. Unfortunately, many of the original lots suffer from chronic drainage problems. There are a few reasons for this, and there is not much that can be done about it until the older homes get removed and the lots completely redone and prepped for a new replacement home.
1. Much of the residential area is classified as Flood Zone A. It wasn’t a flood zone when the original infrastructure was built and the community opened in 1995, but it is now. The reason the homes were put there was proximity to the area where the sewer lagoon was built. JLM was the first residential community to offer a gravity feed sewer system versus septic tanks (and other underground utilities like electricity) and we literally had to build our own sewer lagoon and pump station onsite. That has since been turned over to the East Oktibbeha County Waste Management Association, and they have one of their pump stations located adjacent to the old lagoon but still on JLM property. For cost purposes the homes needed to be installed close to the lagoon, which happened to be in a lower area but not in a flood zone, at the time. The property drainage flows from West to East within the on-property creeks and dumps into the larger County creek which runs generally North to South.
2. We do not have much control over the County creek. The county does occasionally clean it out, and as of 2024 JennLake has authorized an easement to allow for them to do a cleanout on our property, but we have no idea WHEN they will actually do it. From an OVERALL viewpoint, the drainage functions properly because even when the County creek spontaneously overflows from a large amount of rain occurring in a short time period, as soon as it stops raining the water recedes very quickly. We realize this is small comfort if you happen to have a home at the very end of Bernice, Ginny, or Clara. There has never, not once, since 1995 been ANY home at JLM have water get inside the home. This includes the 2018 storm where a good portion of the commercial storage unit company nearby became flooded. We have had situations where items in lot sheds got flooded and we have had to scramble to move low sedan vehicles to higher ground. When this happened it was only a matter of minutes before the water receded back into the County creek once the rain stopped.
3. IT IS POSSIBLE to obtain a flood certificate, even for the older homes not installed on pads, even on the lowest lots within the community. That is because manufactured homes sit on trailers so that the floor of the home is significantly higher than ground level. Any home installed after 2018 will be installed on a raised dirt pad and we do not anticipate any potential flooding issues for those homes in the foreseeable future.
iv. Many of the older homes have had years of dogs running around the lot fencing creating low spots. Most have years of roof runoff that has created ruts up against the home, as well as dogs running around the sides of the homes. And there has been settling for many homes that stay perpetually wet up under the home. All of this contributes to the home eventually becoming the lowest point on the lot. Once that happens, very little can be done to keep water from getting up under the home. We have had some owners install sandbags behind their skirting which does an excellent job. None of this is a JennLake drainage responsibility. We are happy to discuss and provide any consultation that we can, but we cannot do much about it until the home gets removed and a new pad and lot grading gets done for a particular lot, which is largely at JennLake expense.
v. Some of the lots have drainage issues caused by previous owners unintentionally disrupting the drainage when they installed walkways, fencing, or sheds. Often, unfortunately, it isn’t even THEIR home that suffers but rather their neighbor’s home. As management we try to keep an eye on ensuring that no objects or structures interfere with drainage, and we ask that owners obtain a consult and permission before building / installing anything, but we can’t be everywhere and see everything. Often the problem could have been averted if the owners had installed a simple bridge over the existing drainage swale as part of their walkway instead of trying to build through it and inadvertently creating a pond. Again, this is not a JennLake drainage responsibility. We are happy to discuss and provide any consultation that we can, but we cannot do much about it until the home gets removed and a new pad and lot grading gets done for a particular lot, which is largely at JennLake expense. The best advice we can provide is to be aware of these things before you purchase your home. JennLake policy is to stay out of individual lot drainage issues as much as possible. We try to avoid NEW drainage issues developing especially where new homes are installed.
C. Trees:
i. JennLake is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any damage to someone’s home, property, animal, or person caused by a tree. Period, ever. Everyone is required to carry active homeowner’s insurance for their JennLake home and it needs to cover damages to home, property, and personal liability for people.
ii. JennLake is not responsible for any tree, shrubbery, etc that was planted either by you or a previous homeowner. We do require that these be either removed, or properly maintained. There should not be any living thing touching or rubbing up against the roof or side of any home. It is your responsibility to maintain all plantings to provide a pleasing, shaped appearance and in good condition. If they are not maintained, you may be required to remove them at your expense.
iii. Some trees that were planted many moons ago have grown to be quite large, and because they were planted too close to structures have grown into decks or the sides of homes and become a hazard. These need to be removed.
iv. All new plantings must receive prior approval for type and location from JennLake management. For homes installed after 2018, Fire Marshall requirements dictate no permanent structure or tree be within 10 feet of the home. This isn’t always feasible depending on the lot, so please reach out to JLM for guidance.
v. The following are approved trees. Basically, we want trees that are indigenous to the area and unlikely to cause issues. The following trees / plantings are allowed:
1. Eastern redbud overcrepe myrtles – warning these grow quite large and example can be seen just next to the pavilion (to the left just as you pull into the parking area)
2. Sycamore – likes moist ground; do not plant on a slope
3. Eastern Cottonwood – kind of brittle but not as bad as Ash; can grow 20 feet in one year
4. Red Maple – probably any Maple tree ok
5. Silk trees – medium size
6. Mulberry
7. Flowering Dogwood
vi. The following trees are NOT allowed:
1. No Bradford Pears
2. No Easter Red Cedar
vii. If you feel that a PROPERTY tree, as defined by being either outside a residential lot or obviously not planted by a previous owner or yourself, is endangering a home or other structure please notify the office. We recommend you occasionally GO LOOK at the big trees near your home, especially ones in the creek that may be growing at an angle, have roots suffering from erosion, or may have become diseased. It is JLM policy that we will always come look, and possibly pay for a tree expert on our dime, to come assess the situation. If the tree is deemed to be dangerous, we may require you to have it removed proactively using a professional tree service with liability insurance that has access to cranes and the ability to safely take down a tree without damaging surrounding property. If the tree has NOT YET done any damage, we will split the cost to have it properly removed with you. We try to avoid it unless it absolutely must be done. However, we also do not want anyone hurt from a falling tree!
If any part of the tree has already fallen, it will be 100% your responsibility for any damage, removal, and cleanup.
viii. It is 100% the responsibility of homeowners to keep branches away from homes (especially roofs) and the area behind fences cleared of branches. ALL branches from ALL trees. DO NOT TOSS ANYTHING into the creeks that would block drainage.
The main reason JLM continues to be a thriving community with a high demand for homes, aside from the affordable financial value proposition, is that it is known for being SAFE and QUIET. Almost all the issues residents have with management involve one of those two things. Living here is not like living in an apartment. You may be an owner, but you were approved to live here with the understanding that you would follow the Rules and maintain your home and lot to community standards. Management considers it a privilege to live here on their private property. Most residents are extremely respectful of this and their fellow residents.
1. Don’t be loud.
2. Don’t drive fast.
3. Don’t litter or leave your trash anywhere except inside your home or in the dumpsters.
4. Keep your lot properly maintained and tidy, including your decks.
5. Don’t park on the side of the road or on grass anywhere.
If you get in trouble for something your guest or roommate did, DO understand that we do not care that it was your guest. We have little or no control over guests other than to not allow them back on private JennLake property, so we will always take up our issues with you, the owner / resident. It is your responsibility to ensure that your guests understand and follow our rules and policies. Because this is private property, your guests are defacto essentially our guests, allowed to be here as long as they are not causing any issues. They may be asked to leave the property if there are serious issues.
No. There must be either the owner or an immediate family member of the owner as the primary resident. We do allow two adults per home, and this is often a roommate (or sibling). Owners who have a roommate significantly reduce their overall housing cost for JennLake. We do not require any approvals for roommates, but we do like to have them come to the office to read and sign the rules and to obtain their contact and vehicle information. We will always deal directly with owners for any rule’s violations or issues.
Hardly anyone uses a realtor to either buy or sell a home at JennLake. You are welcome to use one, but it won’t change the process that we follow, and we will always interact directly with the seller and the buyer. There is a non-refundable $500 fee at every lease signing which helps cover time spent responding to inquiries, answering questions, selling inspections, publishing homes for sale, conducting home closings, and other activities such as hauling off lot trimmings or driveway maintenance.
JennLake will provide the Bill of Sale and the Land Lease Agreement forms. We will notarize the Bill of Sale at the home closing after the seller and buyer have signed it.
1. We are no longer accepting advance lot rent payments for a discount. We had an unusually large number of advance lot rent paid in 2023 and it severely impacted monthly cash flow.
2. We implemented an “Age of Home” policy. This was necessary to ensure the long-term viability of JennLake Meadows. Please read about it in the separate FAQ “What is the Age of Home Policy?” or the Rules.
3. We plan to install speed enforcement equipment in the future. The speeding problem has just gotten so bad it requires somewhat drastic intervention. It is hoped that a flashing sign with the actual speed will help to slow vehicles.
4. All resident vehicles are required to be registered with the office. This is we can better understand the volume of traffic on the roads, impact heavier non-residential vehicles such as over-sized trucks are having on driveways, and also aid in safe driving enforcement.
No. Manufactured homes are built in factories on top of a trailer that is moved along a factory line while being built. The home is permanently attached to the trailer. From the manufacturing plant they are pulled via that trailer to a retailer lot and then once purchased to where they are installed. The installation process consists of placing the home on blocks, removing the wheels, and then anchoring the home to the earth. Once a home has been installed, and settled, especially if it has been there for any length of time, it is terrible for the home to get moved even an inch. High quality modern manufactured homes are built pretty well, but the forces required to move a home the first few feet off the lot takes a toll on them. In our experience they are never quite the same again. There is also transport to the new location and another installation. It can be done, but it is expensive to hire competent licensed transporters and it is a lot of stress on the home itself (and owners).
Here at JennLake we strive to make sure only high quality well-built safe homes get installed. We only allow homes that meet our minimum quality requirements and have never been installed anywhere else. We expect them to be here for at least 20 years, so we want to make sure they are built well, installed properly, and maintained properly.
Because they are not safe as permanent dwellings for humans. Tiny homes do not meet HUD safety requirements. We tried on several occasions to find a way, but we could never come up with a solution that we felt was safe but still affordable and practical. Basically, for us to build a tiny home that met our own safety standards, it would be more expensive and weigh more than purchasing a good quality single-wide manufactured home that was more than twice as much square footage.
The wholesale value of any manufactured home will only decrease in value as it ages. Wholesale is what most financial lenders use because there is no land attached to JennLake homes. Homes here have a much higher market value because they are installed at JennLake. As soon one of the older homes here is uninstalled, its market value drops instantly to wholesale value.
JennLake was never intended to be cheaper housing than renting an apartment. Originally, it was intended to be a viable affordable “middle” alternative for those who couldn’t afford to buy a site-built home with land but did not want to live in an apartment. Manufactured homes SHOULD depreciate in value over time, all things equal. We expected that homes would gradually drop in value as they aged and had multiple owners. The market has not acted the way we expected, and it is not uncommon for people to break even or make a profit when they sell their homes here. That said, the older homes and especially those with old-style metal roofs and siding, do have finite lives. There is a large variation in the condition of many of the older homes here.
Many of them have had their roofs replaced and some have had very extensive structural repairs done to add years of value to them. Generally, we try to stay out of home pricing, but we want all of the homes to be safe and in good condition. At some point, it does not make sense to spend thousands of dollars trying to repair an existing older home when it would be better for the community to replace it with a new home. We have implemented an Age of Home policy which can be found HERE. We may require any home that we feel is unsafe to be removed from the property, and this could mean a significant financial loss for that owner.
There is an analysis of Home Sales Historical Data available HERE.
This is covered extensively in the Rules which can be found in the Documents section of the website.
Yes. Most land lease manufactured home communities have a policy to systematically replace older homes based on their age from date of manufacture. Unfortunately, JennLake did not initially, or historically, implement any age of home policy for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 aged-homes. Our policy is intended to encourage a natural market alignment for home pricing to provide a soft landing to homeowners, while gradually replacing severely deteriorated homes with new ones for future long term business viability. Please carefully read the Age of Home Policy which can be found HERE.
There is usually a market for people who want to buy cheap homes and install them on private land to rent or use for hunting cabins etc. Homes that we do not consider to be safe for dwelling and hence not able to stay at JennLake are still attractive to many buyers, but not at the normal JennLake market price if the home were staying here. Typically, these buyers are retired retailers or those with ties in the manufactured housing industry who can obtain a licensed transporter to uninstall and remove the home and have the skills to do minimal repairs for re-sell elsewhere.
Please carefully read the Age of Home Policy which can be found HERE.
We do not mind passing along contact information for good vendors, but we are probably not as good of a source for that information as can be found elsewhere. JennLake maintains a private Facebook group for residents. This is a great place to ask fellow residents for recommendations on good vendors. The local co-op has a bulletin board by the restrooms where local contractors often advertise services. There is also a FB group for Starkville Buy Sell Trade that is useful. It can be difficult to find qualified competent vendors to work on trailers. If you find one that you feel should be recommended to others, please post it on the FB group for others to know about.
We understand that it is especially challenging to find good vendors if you are an out of state owner or are unable to get back to Starkville yourself. We also understand that it can be difficult to bring tools you may want to do the work yourself. We respectfully ask that you do not ask to borrow JLM tools. Over the years we have had several broken / lost tools as a result trying to be helpful and it is much preferable for us if we don’t get placed in that awkward situation. It is also a potential liability issue for us especially with tools that could be dangerous.
There is no property storm shelter at JennLake Meadows. We do allow homeowners to install small above ground shelters in approved locations if the lots are suitable. Vet students are allowed to go to CVM for weather emergencies. The City of Starkville has a shelter, but pets are not allowed.
For planning purposes, expect lot rent to increase about $25 per month, per year. JLM lot rent has historically been way too low, and our increases since 2018 have not even kept up with inflation and additional expenses. This amount may increase or decrease slightly, depending on operational circumstances, but $300 per year is a probably pretty accurate for planning purposes.
If you plan to sell your home to someone who plans to remove the home, make sure you coordinate with JLM management BEFORE you sell the home. This is to protect you, the buyer, and JLM. Unless your buyer is an experienced retailer or has done it before, they are probably unaware of the timeline, complexity, and associated costs. Often buyers cannot be approved to live at JLM due to credit issues, which also means they may not have the financial resources or the know-how to actually move a home. Another issue is that depending on the age of the home, it may not be allowed in the location they plan to install it. If this isn’t confirmed ahead of time with the courthouse of wherever home will be going, you may find yourself in a bind. You do NOT want to find this out after you have sold the home, but are still under an active lease agreement with JennLake. We want to avoid situations where the owner of the home doesn’t live here, probably doesn’t have insurance on the home, doesn’t know and cannot afford to actually move the home, and you are still on the hook for utilities, lot rent, lot maintenance, and lot cleanup for an extended time period. This list is not all-inclusive but it does provide a sense of the process to remove a home:
1. Make sure there is a place for the home to go! Licensed transporters cannot move a home if there isn’t a place to put it. Don’t sell that home until you have confirmed there is a pad prepped and ready that will pass Fire Marshall inspection with access to the pad (solid ground, no branches in the way, and slope of ground acceptable).
2. Make sure there is a plan to remove the decks and skirting and any trees or landscaping or other objects that would impede moving the home off the lot. Obviously, this must be done BEFORE transporters can uninstall a home. It all must go, and none of it can go in JennLake dumpsters. It is expensive, and hard, to remove decks and skirting so make sure there is a plan in place and your buyer is paying for it.
3. Make sure there is a licensed transporter available, and that this transporter has coordinated with JennLake management well in advance for scheduling and coordination. It is NOT the responsibility of JennLake to find you or your buyer a transporter. All we require is that they have an active license in good standing with the Mississippi Fire Marshall registry. It is often a lengthy process to FIND a transporter willing to do a used home move during their busy season when they are booked with retailers and manufacturers for new home installs.
4. Make sure there is a plan to coordinate disconnects from underground utilities. This is also NOT the responsibility of JennLake, but we may require a licensed contractor be used especially for disconnecting the underground power. Any damage caused to underground utilities will be YOUR responsibility (who we have the active lease with) for infrastructure repairs if necessary. Most transporters are not used to dealing with underground power and sewer.
5. Make sure the date of uninstall and removal is planned well in advance with JennLake management so that we can be available onsite, and also notify residents for traffic and delays.
6. Once the home is removed, there is a significant debris field left behind. ALL OF IT must be completely cleaned up to the extent that it can be mowed safely. This includes removal of the home anchors which most transporters will not do unless specifically told it is a requirement. This includes any other structures such as sheds and fences, unless specifically approved to stay by JLM management. It is EXPENSIVE to clean up a lot and haul off trash to the dump. If JennLake management has to do it, we WILL invoice you for reimbursement and we will NOT release you from your lease agreement until it has been done.
7. It is important to realize that the timeframe to actually remove a home is typically months, not weeks. It is a complex process with multiple steps involved, and highly weather dependent because transporters are only allowed to travel with a home during daylight hours and good weather. Local moves are easier to coordinate.
8. Until the home has been removed safely, and the lot is completely clean, YOU are still responsible for the lot rent, maintaining the lot, and keeping utilities on in the home. (Your buyer would not be able to switch the utilities anyhow without a JLM lease agreement.)