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Instant buyers, also known as iBuyers, rapidly buy and sell homes using automated models to set prices. These companies, such as Opendoor and Offerpad, can turn around cash offers in a matter of hours, and they've captured more than 5% of the real estate market in some U.S. cities.

Since new tech often replicates or exacerbates existing societal biases, University of Washington researchers wanted to investigate how iBuyers have affected the well-documented racial bias in home appraisals—particularly bias against Black homeowners.

The team also discovered that iBuyers were then significantly less likely to sell homes to individual buyers. Instead, these companies were more likely to sell homes to institutions, such as large rental companies that've been tied to high eviction rates and rent gouging.

The team presented its research in June at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, held in Rio de Janeiro.

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