Owning property in a college town can have its perks.

One benefit can be is there is always a place to lay your head after the big game.

Vicksburg residents Bobby and Laura Fleming have been Bulldog fans since before they were born, she said, and after her husband retired, the couple bought a home in Starkville.

“When he (Bobby) retired he wanted to buy a motor home. I told him I understand that you like to travel, but what you will want to do most of the time is drive from here to Starkville and have a place to stay when we get there,” Fleming said.

“He just laughed, and so some friends of ours offered to let us spend the weekend with them and see the neighborhood where they were living in Starkville.”

Fleming said she and her husband fell in love with the area and shortly afterwards contracted to have a house built across the street.

They have now owned their second home for 13 years and seven families in their Starkville neighborhood are either from Vicksburg or have Vicksburg ties.

In addition to avoiding the increased hotel rates during sporting events — and that is if you could even find a room —Fleming said owning their own home in Starkville has served as meeting place for family.

“My son’s wife has family around Starkville and Columbus and Louisville and they can drop in and spend the night if necessary and then Nashville is where my youngest daughter is and it is a much quicker trip for her to come to Starkville and meet us there than it is for her to drive from Nashville to Vicksburg.”

While spending time with family is treasured, Fleming said the home in Starkville is her get-a-way.

“Like people go to the mountains or the beach, this is like my retreat. You can go there and relax and kind of forget things that are going on,” she said.

Hunter and Sallie Fordice have owned a home in Oxford for the past four years, and like Fleming, their home has functioned as a central location for her children.

“With four kids and not knowing where they would all land, and having a third child at Ole Miss, it seemed like a good time for us to have a place where our now adult children could come back to and watch the games,” Sallie Fordice said.

“And for Hunter and I, it would allow our family a wonderful rendezvous for our family since one of our daughters lives in Nashville.”

A second daughter will be moving to Nashville in the near future, Fordice said, solidifying there decision of buying a home at a halfway point.

As season ticket holders, Tom and Susan Kendall have made sure that after the Bulldogs have finished a game, they will not have to head back to Vicksburg.

“We never stayed in a hotel,” Susan Kendall said, “and that is really why we saved up enough to get a place.”

Although Kendall said she allows her oldest daughter, who is a student at MSU to use their home for studying at times, it was not purchased to be her living quarters.

“Having the home is mostly about us and just the ease that it puts on us,” Kendall said, “And, we can take the dog.”