The innovation wave has hit the buy-side, with Power Buyers emerging as this year's buzziest business model. What power buyers do is make the buyer effectively a cash buyer, or as some folks have pointed out, they turn any buyer into an iBuyer.

Power buyers help homebuyers compete in the marketplace through two primary services: cash-backed offers and buy-before-you-sell.

Here’s how the majority of cash offers work:

To get a cash offer, a homebuyer must complete a qualification process that confirms their creditworthiness and provides a budget. Once approved, the homebuyer chooses the home they want to purchase, and the power buyer purchases the home on the buyer’s behalf with an all-cash offer to a seller.
From there, the buyer may be required to provide an earnest money deposit or pay a flat-rate transaction fee. Power buyers who offer mortgage and title services will often waive the transaction fee if a buyer decides to finance their purchase with them as well.
The buyer can move into the home immediately while they secure a mortgage to repurchase the home from the power buyer.
The buyer will often pay a prorated rental fee for the time they stayed in the home before closing on their mortgage.

Meanwhile, buy-before-you-sell options take cash offers a few steps further:

For homesellers-turned-homebuyers, they’re able to complete a similar process through a buy-before-you-sell service.
Buy-before-you-sell services are an alternative to bridge loans and help this segment of homebuyers expertly navigate two simultaneous transactions.
Homebuyers will complete the same steps as a homebuyer who is looking to simply secure cash backing, except they’re given an extended rental timeline to sell their previous home and secure a mortgage for a new home.
The power buyer can help them sell their home on the open market with home prep services and the guidance of an in-house agent.
If they’re unable to sell their home on the open market within a certain number of days — usually 180 — power buyers will purchase the home themselves.

Power buyers also offer sale-leasebacks and lease-to-own services.

Contingencies revolve around financing, inspection, appraisal or home sale itself, and power buyers are also positioned to remove those contingencies to create a seamless process for buyers and sellers alike.

The power buyer model has still plenty of room to grow. The power buyer model seems to be resilient to market fluctuations and will become an industry standard in the next five years.