John Oceguera
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John Oceguera just got flipped.
The former Nevada Assembly speaker and failed congressional candidate bought a two-story, 3,640-square-foot Las Vegas house a few weeks ago for $499,000 — less than two months after the seller got it for $250,000, property records show.
House flipping, a hallmark of the boom era, is not as common in Las Vegas as it used to be. And while flippers can still make good money buying and quickly selling homes, they don’t usually fare as well as local investor Tom Wall. He booked a 99.6 percent profit margin over his purchase price on the sale to Oceguera and his wife, Janie.
Flippers statewide had an average profit margin of 9 percent, or $15,205 per deal, in the first half of the year, according to research firm RealtyTrac.
Oceguera, a retired North Las Vegas assistant fire chief, said he bought the house because Janie, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, is pregnant with their third child and they wanted more space. The home, on the northern edge of the valley, was built in 2004, sits on a 0.47-acre lot and has five bedrooms and five bathrooms, as well as a 662-square-foot casita. Their purchase was recorded July 15.
Their old house, which they plan to rent out, is one story with 2,866 square feet of space and sits on a 0.21-acre lot.
Although he knew Wall was flipping the property, Oceguera said the seller did extensive renovations. Work crews reportedly were there all the time.
Wall, who sold the house through his Pyrenees Investments 1 LLC, bought the property on May 22 from Lisa Ann Riggs-Aslam. She and her then-husband Mohammad Aslam bought the house from builder KB Home in April 2004, during the housing bubble, for $525,286, according to property records.
On his business entity filing with the Nevada secretary of state, Wall, managing member of Pyrenees, lists his address as 106 Cassia Way, Henderson, the same address as Cesare Inc., an engineering and construction consulting firm. A woman who answered a call to Cesare’s main number said Tom Wall works in that building and provided a phone number for him.
When asked about the sale to Oceguera, Wall said he wasn’t familiar with the house.
“I think you’ve got the wrong person,” he said, and then hung up.
Oceguera, a Democrat, was initially elected to the state Assembly in 2000 and became speaker in 2011. Last year, he lost his bid to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Heck by a vote of 137,244 to 116,823.