Smaller investors with limited capital or deadlines to repay investors are now selling houses following a 26% surge in home prices from a March 2012 low. This is good news for bigger firms that are swallowing up smaller competitors as they shift their focus to managing scattered properties, according to an article in Bloomberg.

“That consolidation phase will be bigger than the original buy phase,” Tom Barrack, whose Colony American Homes is the third-largest single-family landlord, said during an interview today at Bloomberg’s Los Angeles bureau. “Now we’ll sweep up everybody over the next two years who got stuck, who says I have home price appreciation, which they do. They bought right, but now they are stuck.”

American Homes 4 Rent, the second-biggest company in the industry, this month bought Beazer Pre-Owned Rental Homes Inc., gaining more than 1,300 houses. Barrack’s Colony American has made four bulk purchases this year.