Assigning a contract is allowed in Washington. Its allowed in most states possibly all. Designing a business around getting properties under contract and assigning your interest is against wac codes and against most states codes.
Washington as well as most states are concerned with intent. Most people doing this are taking a chance. That being said tons of people are doing it in Washington, I've bought from a bunch. I'm not sure they would even get fined if caught considering most of the "wholesalers" i know are now at a point where they could close if they wanted to and have closed occasionally which could help them in the event they were brought to court.
Getting a realtors license doesn't give you a pass for Assigning contracts as a business either. Although it allows you to broker deals it doesn't allow you to create a business Assigning contracts as your main business model.
if you "wholesale" a few deals you will likely be ok if you cover yourself by doing things such as have a have a hard money lender give you a quote on each deal. This would help u show intent. If you happen to talk to a buyer that wants the property before you close then Assigning the contract shouldn't generally be an issue.
I'll see if I can dig up the old wac codes. Its possible they have changed but this info was valid at least up to a few years ago. I probably should have started with this paragraph :)
