"Hiring" an agent to do research for me

[Steven Leigh]

I'm considering finding a fairly new agent who might have extra time and need extra income to do some research for me on MLS. This would be things like finding recent cash purchases and sending me the agents who were representing the buyers, maybe sending me expired listings, etc.

Here is the question: Are there legal issues restricting this? If I paid them an hourly rate or per deliverable, would we have to make an arrangement with the broker as well?

Since I'm investor and not an agent or broker, I don't know what kind of laws and restrictions might come into play here. Thanks for any help you can provide.