A discussion broke out in my office yesterday regarding invisible fences. You know, the kind you use to keep your dog in the yard. The dog wears a special collar and receives a small jolt of electric shock when he gets too close to the “invisible fence” which is a wire buried a couple inches below the surface of the yard.

The wire and control panel have to be considered part of the house and would, therefore, convey with the property. The dog collar, contrary to my instincts, is personal property and does not convey with the house. For health reasons it makes sense; you don’t want some mangy mutt’s collar on your precious dog. I have to tell you though, without the collar, the fence is a mute point.

In my mind, it’s similar to taking the garage door opener with you when you move. The obvious difference is that the opener won’t work with your new garage door but the old dog collar will work with a new dog system – you simply adjust the frequency. Depending on the size of the dog, these could run a couple hundred bucks so either use me to help you buy or sell your home since I think of everything, or tell your Realtor to be sure to spell out in the contract which dog gets what. That goes with dog houses too.