Last week I noticed that my real estate license had expired. Not even a day had gone by since I’d gotten involved in one of the biggest and most controversial debates in Florida, over whether to eliminate the personal income tax rebate for homeowners. In short, I had been getting calls from the state attorney general’s office, asking me to take a “lie detector” test, so they could determine if I had any undeclared income. After all, I had lived in Florida for more than 30 years.

So now I’m being scrutinized for earnings that no one else on my block or in my community knew about. My property is on the market, and my tenants have called to negotiate. No one is happy with this situation. The problem was that my income tax return wasn’t filed for three months. In fact, there might be a problem with my income, if I didn’t file my return for this period of time. That means the state can hold me in contempt of court, and if they go that far, I might lose my license.

My real estate license expired just before I was going to submit a plea for one of my cases. Now, I didn’t think my license would be renewed, but apparently the state attorney general’s office has run some checks, and found that I did in fact have an expired license. Now, I’m being forced to hire someone to take a lie detector test! This is ridiculous! If you‘ve never taken a lie detector test, it’s not a very fun experience, but if you’ve ever felt tempted to give a false answer on a test, you know what happens.

You sit in a quiet room, and someone is going to ask you a series of questions. Depending on the state, you could spend anywhere from five minutes, to as much as half an hour, to answer the questions. I’m sure most people would prefer not to have to lie and would prefer to pay someone else to find out if they have an expired real estate license.

The problem with this is that these license searches are only conducted occasionally, not when someone is buying or selling a property. So, instead of the state finding out about it, the owner could find out about it, before you buy or sell your own property. Of course, this could also mean that the new owner would have an expired license, which would make the sale invalid, and open you up to a lawsuit.

One solution to this problem is to use a private detective to do an online search, in order to find out if there is an expired license. Of course, this costs money, but if you’re doing something like this, it’s likely that you have enough money for it. Besides, an expired license isn’t a huge deal, and there isn’t much of a problem with it. If someone else comes across the same form, and signs it, you don’t have anything to worry about. You can’t argue with the person, if they want to renew their license. The process is completely fair, and everyone is kept happy.

So, how do you go about checking if you have a real estate license that has expired? The first thing you can do, is of course, call the local government agencies, such as your city hall, or county clerk. They will be able to let you know the status of your license, as well as tell you if you still have it, or if you’re required to have a new one. Most likely, you won’t need a new license, unless you’ve done something wrong, such as purchasing property in a wrong state. The only time you may have to get a new license is if you move to a different county. However, if you move to a different city, it may be necessary to get a new license there as well.

There are other ways to find out if you have a lapsed license, as well. One option is to contact your city hall and find out when it expires. You can also try calling the recorder’s office and asking them for this information. If you still have no luck with either of these options, or if you’ve tried both and got no results, you can always take the next step and try to renew your license yourself. This isn’t necessarily as difficult as it may sound. By taking the proper steps ahead of time, you can ensure that you don’t run into any problems when trying to get your license renewed.