Questions from a newbie..just started and things are moving fast!

Hey everyone,
I've already talked to some of you via PM and I greatly appreciate the advice. It's so reassuring to be able to talk to people who have experience and are comfortable with REI. I greatlu appreciate it!

I just started out, using the "fake it till you make it" approach and things are starting to move. I decided to go the wholesaling/bird-dogging route to get started. I've found a list of four investors who do assignment fees and want to work with me.

Just started looking at houses and already found something pretty good via craigslist. It's a single-family, 3BD, 1bth ranch in a nortwest suburb of Illinois. The asking price is 45K with an estimated 10-15k repairs and comps in the area being 90-100K. So we're looking at 30-45K in equity. I scheduled the walk-through for tomorrow afternoon with the seller.

On the other end, I've contacted several of my end-buyers two of which have already gotten back to me. One of them started asking for information about the house and I did give him the town, prices, etc which I feel was a mistake (I was kinda caught up in the moment of actaully starting to deal with investors). The same guy called me back and asked for the telephone number of the seller but i told him I wasn't comfortable doing that until we had something signed between the two of us. If i were to do a bird-dog deal with this, what kind of form would myself and this end buyer need to sign to ensure that I would get a fee at the end? And would this fee happen up-front or at closing?

IT seems like a really good deal so I'm thinking whether or not I should bird-dog this one for the sake of moving in baby steps (and also make a little dough) or should I go all the way and try an assignment deal (even though I'm not quite sure about the ins and outs of the deal yet.) And last thing, is bird-dogging legal in Illinois?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!