Wholesaling is not illegal anywhere....it depends on what your definition of wholesaling is, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. Also I know a lot of agents here in cali that are also "wholesalers" and there's nothing wrong with working both angles. Ohio has stricter guidelines but it's not illegal as long as you either "assign" your purchase agreements or you can use transactional funding to do a back to back escrow. I've done both many times and structured deals every which way. I'm in socal (one of the most competitive markets) and I've had great results with direct mail....my advise would be to set a marketing budget of whatever you can afford on a 90-120 day period and then set your marketing up on a 6 week cycle.
Here's what I been doing
18,000 leads split between absentee owners and pre forclosures
I send out 3000 cards a week and then recycle after 6 weeks .
And as far as your obligation as a agent to represent your sellers and buyers, thats all circumstantial....if you get calls from people with turn key houses and no motivation than I would suggest you offer to list there house for them in a tradition manner, but when someone calls in a jam that needs a quick cash sale than go the wholesale route and you will be relieving them of a big problem and everyone will be happy.
Good luck let me know if you need any other advise I'm glad to help I'm crushing it here in cali