Question on hiring an employee to flesh out deals

[Dan Mac]

Good Evening, I live a little north of Spokane WA but look for deals in commercial real estate all over the states.  My ? is, I'd like to hire someone to look for deals for me but this person is a real estate agent in Washington.  He thinks he can't help me look outside of Washington due to his license being good in only Washington.  I'd be paying him not via commission but weekly wages as an employee for running numbers, making phone calls to planning department for county/cities, general DD on potential properties, etc.  If he's not involved with the actual closing of the properties, can't he just be an employee and perform these tasks for me?  thanks for any insight