If there’s one thing Dave Pascucci, an agent at Century 21 Winklhofer, knows for sure it’s that no matter what the challenge, if he keeps working, eventually everything will fall into place.

“Hard work always pays off,” he says. And for Dave that work ethic first instilled in him by his Mom, has indeed paid off.

“Growing up it was just me and my mom and my sister,” he says. “Looking back, I really appreciate all she did. I see a lot of her in me because of how hard I work for my daughter—the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

He’s had ample opportunity to put his mantra that hard work always pays off to the test. In his first year as an agent, he only sold three properties with a combined value of $325,000. The next year, it was seven properties valued at $1.3 million. And then Covid came along. 

Only working part-time, Dave says it was then he realized that to be successful in real estate he needed to give up his other job and devote himself full-time to the profession. Last year, his first working full-time as an agent, he hit $6.5 million in sales from 32 properties. This year he’s shooting for $8 million.

It was buying his first home about a decade back that sparked Dave’s interest in selling them. As a first-time buyer, he says learning about mortgages, taxes, titles, insurance and the myriad of other complexities of transactions piqued his interest enough to get his license. Buying that first home also made him realize that if he was going to succeed, one of his guiding principles needed to be to always put clients first.

“I don’t look at the client as a dollar sign,” he says. “My main focus is to make sure clients are comfortable with and fully understand what they’re doing. It’s not like you’re going to the store and picking up fruits and vegetables. You’re about to make a 30-year quarter of a million dollar or more decision.”

Putting clients first is also just good business, he says. “At the end of the day, our business is sales and most of those come from referrals.” Being the best, most informative agent he can and building relationships with clients, he says, is the best way to get those referrals and repeat business.

Among those he credits for his continuing success are Amy and Eric Winklhofer, the brother-sister team behind Century 21 Winklhofer, recalling that when he joined the firm 2 years ago, both assured him they had his back for anything he needed.

“At the time I just thought they said it because that’s what they were expected to say,” he says. “But they’ve been true to their word. They’ve pushed me and pushed us all to be the best we can be.”

Another person he credits is Mary West, the brokerage’s administrator, who has been a mentor and also helped him overcome an early problem with confidence. “You're still questioning yourself,” she told him. “You just have to look at a client as a person because that’s the way they’re looking at you.”

The collaborative spirit, family atmosphere and highly ethical culture at C21 Winklhofer are yet another reason for that success.

The biggest influence on his future success, though, was his mother. “Growing up it was just me and my mom and my sister, “he says. “She raised us herself. She figured it out on her own.”

You can hear the love in his voice when he talks about his Mom and his grandfather, his de facto stepfather growing up and another major influence. Both died within a month of each other a couple of years back, deaths he says he will always grieve. “But you’ve got to keep going and live with the pain,” he says, adding his grief has helped fuel his desire to succeed in their honor.

Outside the office, there’s nothing he’d rather do than hang out with his daughter, Addelyn—hiking, taking in sunsets at Fort Niagara, running around area parks, grabbing a bite at Porky’s and a cone at Hibbards. Dave’s girlfriend, Kayley, joins them from time to time. Like himself, she’s a business person driven to success.

Another focus outside the office is keeping healthy. He loves working out and you’ll find him hitting the gym regularly. And having played basketball in college, he took the sport up once again about eight months back and plays a couple of times each week. He also enjoys hiking at spots like Devils Hole and Joseph Davis. 

Next to putting clients first, his second guiding principle in life and business is, not surprisingly, simply to work hard. “Work as hard as you can every single day no matter what,” he says. “If you’re in a rut you just have to keep going.

Along those lines, he mentions advice given to him a number of years back by well-known WNY Realtor Samuel Talarico.

“I was in a bit of drought,” Dave recalls. “I told Sam I had been working 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week for months and asked him what to do when I was exerting maximum effort for minimum results.”

Sam, he says, just looked at him and then gave a two-word answer: “Work harder.”

And Dave did just that.