She invited a local radio host to tour the clubhouse and speak glowingly on air about Crest View’s ambitious expansion plans, carefully avoiding any mention of the fact that the association did not yet own a single square foot of the parcel being described. At one particularly heated gathering, a longtime resident named Walter Higgby asked plainly why the association was so certain it could outbid a man who owned nearly two hundred acres of commercial land outright. And Lenora brushed the question aside by insisting that determination mattered more than deep pockets, a line that drew scattered applause, but left Tobias quietly shaking his head from the back row.
Grant, meanwhile, set himself a hard limit of three hundred ten thousand dollars, a number reflecting what the parcel was genuinely worth to his operation, plus a reasonable premium for the access route, and he had no intention of bidding with his emotions the way Lenora clearly intended to.
At the next board meeting, Tobias again tried to protect at least one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars for the lien, but Lenora argued Grant was unlikely to push past four hundred thousand and even hinted the association could take out a short-term loan if necessary. A claim that fell apart the moment Tobias checked with the bank and learned no such approval existed, only a casual conversation with a loan officer.
Mallerie began to grow uneasy watching this unfold, but the board voted anyway, five to two, approving the four hundred fifty thousand dollar ceiling, and then Lenora quietly raised her own personal authorization to four hundred seventy-five thousand, citing auction fees and closing costs. Tobias insisted she put the funding source in writing, and she signed her name beside the word reserve fund, a signature that would matter enormously later.
While the next morning Grant learned from Everett that the tax certificate holder had already completed nearly every step required to request a tax deed, meaning the coming deadline was not a formality, but the final door before ownership could change hands entirely.
Mallerie spent that final week trying to quietly gather more information on her own, calling a friend who worked in property management at another association across the county and asking in general terms how other boards typically balanced competing financial obligations. The answer she received was blunt, that no responsible board ever let a discretionary purchase take priority over a mandatory legal deadline, and that any treasurer who allowed it would likely face serious personal liability questions afterward.
Mallerie considered raising the issue publicly one final time before the auction. But Lenora had grown so dismissive of any pushback that Mallerie doubted it would change anything, and she spent the night before the auction lying awake, wondering whether she should have pushed harder regardless.