Yard signs, boisterous neighbor keeping Golden Gate Estates home from selling

Is a feud between neighbors going too far, or a case of free speech? Signs that are offensive to some are sitting outside a home in Collier County. The feud started when the house next door went up for sale.

A home in Golden Gate Estates is for sale, and by all accounts, it’s beautiful inside and out, but according to neighbors, realtors, and potential buyers, it will not sell. They say it is because of the man next door.

“I was hosting an open house, and when clients pulled up. That’s when he started shooting his gun. Everyone was startled. There were kids there,” said Sascha Nagel.

Nagel is a realtor trying to find a buyer for the for-sale home. He told me gunfire scares buyers away, and so do the signs.

“The last open house that I did, I started at one, and by 2:30, nobody showed up, which is kind of weird. So then I went out, and I just saw a car leaving the driveway. And I was thinking, what’s that all about? So I went outside, and I saw these signs. And I was like, ‘oh, my God, that’s the reason,'” Nagel said.

The signs read, “Whoever buys this is getting sued unless the owner pays me. **** you.”

“We chose to pass,” said a potential buyer who was too scared to have his identity shared.

He’ll never forget his visit to Golden Gate Estates and the one particular neighbor.

“Riding a very large or loud four-wheel motorcycle and ATV. And it was loud. And then he was riding it around and just shooting a very loud gun,” said the potential buyer.

A Collier County deputy explained that the sheriff’s office could not make the man stop firing a gun in his backyard unless he became reckless or negligent.

As for the signs? The First Amendment protects his right to free speech.