Opendoor, which pioneered iBuying when it launched in Phoenix in 2014, has introduced cash-backed offers to buyers in 13 of its markets, joining other iFunders who have jumped in with two feet into the alternative real estate financing world. Like iBuying, cash-backed offers adds a bit more risk for the company, but secures it valuable mortgage business, something it, many other brokerage companies, covet as key parts of their business models. In an inventory-starved market, as exist today in most areas of the U.S., cash-backed offers free of financing and other contingencies give buyers a leg up, and, Opendoor a seller, if the buyer also has a home to sell. These continued innovations around alternative financing in real estate are upping consumer competition for brokerages and lenders.