Hmm, I’ve never had that problem and I’ve probably lived in a dozen different places in my lifetime with automatic garage doors. In my current house, I can open the garage door from anything less than about half a block away, although I do notice it’s highly sensitive to how fresh the batteries are in my opener. When I have to get as close as my next-door neighbor’s house, I’ll usually swap out the batteries for new ones. Other than that, it’d be interesting to know which make and model you have (so none of us Freepers ever make the mistake of buying one!).
It isn’t the opener or the batteries. Metal building. I tried connecting to an external antenna wire but it doesn’t help.