Dear King County Executive's Office, Seattle King County REALTORS®, Washington REALTORS®, King County Council, Bellevue City Council, and the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, Washington and Bellevue Chambers of Commerce, 

I am a 45-year resident of Bellevue, where I run my AI firm MindCast AI LLC. I hold a background in law and economics. 

I’m reaching out to elevate an urgent structural issue unfolding in Washington’s real estate market—one that’s visible to the public, corrosive to trust, and now ripe for coordinated civic response.

Compass, a New York-based brokerage platform, has effectively entered Washington’s real estate market as an outsider with an aggressive playbook. It is suing NWMLS both directly and through its Washington subsidiary, using litigation not to protect consumers—but to gain market share and squeeze out local competitors.

In a region where firms like Windermere and John L. Scott have deep local roots, Compass feels the pressure to deliver returns on its recent real estate acquisitions.

Compass has chosen the path of abusive antitrust litigation, aiming to extract concessions that would let it weaponize its infrastructure and crowd out rivals. This is a form of narrative inversion in broad daylight: Compass positions itself as a victim of anti-competitive behavior while simultaneously engaging in exclusionary practices that distort the market and corrode consumer trust.

This inversion hasn’t gone unnoticed. In the Seattle Times’ recent reporting (seattletimes.com/busine…) on the private listings feud, over 150 public comments poured in—many roasting Compass’s strategy as extractive, elitist, and fundamentally deceptive. The public sees it clearly: this isn’t innovation; it’s exploitation. See: Inside the Collapse of Compass’s Public Trust Tower (noelleesq.substack.com/…)

Compass’s antitrust lawsuit against NWMLS wasn’t filed to protect consumers—it was filed to gain market share through litigation leverage. But in doing so, Compass may have walked into its own trap. If it succeeds in getting concessions that weaken MLS transparency or undermine collective standards, it opens the door for government antitrust enforcers to indict Compass itself for the same anti-competitive outcomes it falsely accused others of enabling. See: Compass v. NWMLS: Weaponizing Antitrust—for Profit, Not Consumers(noelleesq.substack.com/… )

This is a textbook a failure of moral coherence and structural integrity—an incoherent public posture cloaked in legal strategy, now unraveling in public view.

As the founder of MindCast AI, I’ve been running public-facing simulations that model how unchecked platform dominance affects civic trust, market behavior, and regulatory response. These simulations illustrate how platforms that centralize power and manipulate public narratives often collapse under scrutiny—if public institutions respond in time.

MindCast AI is preparing to submit an Amicus Brief in Support of NWMLS (noelleesq.substack.com/… )in the U.S. District Court, providing structural and narrative analysis of Compass’s tactics and their anticompetitive implications.

Additionally, the Bellevue Chamber has an opportunity (noelleesq.substack.com/… ) to file its own amicus brief in support of a fair and transparent housing market—one that prioritizes community-wide access over litigation leverage.

I believe your offices—spanning public leadership, professional ethics, and legal enforcement—are uniquely positioned to:

Recommended Actions by Party

King County Executive’s Office:

• Assess the civic impact of real estate platform consolidation.

• Propose public interest data-sharing frameworks that strengthen MLS transparency.

• Signal support for regulatory innovation that protects local broker ecosystems.

King County Council:

• Hold public hearings on the impact of listing platform dominance on housing access and broker equity.

• Introduce transparency ordinances to regulate exclusionary real estate practices within the county.

• Coordinate with city governments to ensure unified county-wide listing data standards.

Bellevue City Council:

• Investigate how platform practices are reshaping Bellevue's housing market dynamics.

• Support policies that protect local broker access to listings and fair digital representation.

• Partner with King County and SKCR to develop joint frameworks for listing transparency and platform accountability.

Seattle King County REALTORS® (SKCR):

• Issue a formal public statement denouncing narrative inversion tactics in the Compass litigation.

• Educate members about how private platform centralization harms market integrity.

• Partner with government officials to promote transparency standards in listing and advertising practices.

Washington REALTORS® (WR):

• Coordinate with national REALTOR® organizations to monitor and challenge anticompetitive platform behavior.

• Provide policy resources and legal guidance to member brokerages at risk of displacement by platform dominance.

• Advocate at the state level for legislation supporting decentralized listing ecosystems.

Washington State Attorney General’s Office:

• Launch an inquiry into Compass’s listing and market strategies to assess antitrust risk.

• Monitor the outcome of Compass v. NWMLS for signs of bad-faith litigation aimed at market manipulation.

• Issue guidance to MLS entities and brokerages about compliance with fair competition laws.

Chambers of Commerce (Bellevue & Washington State):

• File amicus briefs in the Compass v. NWMLS case to represent the economic interests of their member businesses.

• Issue public statements or policy resolutions opposing abusive litigation and defending market transparency.

• Lobby local and state governments to enact safeguards that promote listing transparency and open market access.

• Convene dialogues among real estate, legal, and civic stakeholders to build unified positions on platform consolidation.

• Commission independent economic impact studies to quantify the local and regional effects of Compass’s litigation strategy.

• Support member firms who may face retaliation or harm from exclusionary platform tactics.

I propose a joint briefing or task force discussion to explore a unified regional response to platform centralization in real estate. I’m ready to support your teams with analytical and civic tools as needed. The public is already speaking—we now have a chance to respond with clarity, rigor, and resolve.

Sincerely, Noel Le Founder, MindCast AI noel@mindcast-ai.com linkedin.com/in/noellee… | noelleesq.substack.com