For James Wangelin, 80 percent of success isn’t just about showing up, as Woody Allen famously said, but showing up with the right mindset. 

“When I’ve been successful in business, I didn’t necessarily play a perfect game,” says the co-owner and co-broker at Towne Housing Real Estate. “I didn’t hit it out of the park my first attempt but my mindset was to keep on doing it until I got it right.”

Combined with taking the right actions—the other 20 percent of success for James—it’s been a formula that’s served him well, both in life and in business. His tendency to enjoy and be energized by multiple projects has also served him well.

In addition to Towne Housing, he’s owner of Wangelin Development, which oversees his personal real estate investments and Cellino and Wangelin Construction, which handles needed repairs and rehabs for the 62 units he owns. It also offers a significant advantage in purchasing others, he says. “It allows us to “have full control of a real estate deal. So when we purchase it, we know how much it’s going to cost to rehab. Then we can go ahead and rehab, get it financed and rent it out.” 

Before Towne Housing, he had founded a successful boat detailing business and a successful summer storage business for college students in New York and Florida, both of which he eventually sold.

His most important title, Dad, was acquired six months ago when he and his wife, Marcy, welcomed their first child, James, to the family. Marcy is also an associate broker at Towne Housing and an investor as well. They met while taking their broker’s course.

“I talk to him about real estate,” James says of his son, perhaps only partly tongue-in-cheek. “Hopefully he will enjoy it as much as I do.” 

James joined Towne Housing in 2018 after having met founder Jeremy Ballsmith at a gathering of real estate professionals. 

An investor and Realtor, Jeremy had begun Towne Housing in 2012 with an eye primarily toward providing property management services for his investments and those of other investors. Under his leadership it has grown to one of the largest property management firms in Western New York. 

When they met, James had just gotten his broker’s license and was thinking about starting his own agency while Jeremey was looking to expand real estate sales at Towne Housing. The two clicked and James now mostly manages the real estate sales side of the business and Jeremy its property management side.

Learning from and working with Jeremy, he says, has been one of the most positive influences on both his career and investments.

Since 2018, the brokerage has grown from a few agents to about 30 and last year was ranked No. 17 out of 300 in Western New York, with aspirations, James says, to continue to grow and become a major player in the Western New York market. Towne Housing agents are a big reason for its continued success, he says, describing them as young, energetic and in tune with social media and video marketing. “That's the generation that Jeremy and I grew up in.” There’s also a collaborative spirit among the agents, comparing notes about marketing, listings, sharing advice and educating buyers, sellers and investors. 

One important point he tries to instill in those agents focuses on lifestyle. He tells them that once they start making money, they can choose a life of luxury but warns that under that scenario, “The moment you stop selling real estate is the moment you stop making money. If you're smart, you put your money in investment products so when you stop selling real estate, you’re still making money.”

Among the keys behind his own success, he says, has been the support of his parents and family. “They supported me the entire way, even though they thought I was pretty nuts for quitting my full-time job to become a full-time entrepreneur 10 years ago.”

Outside the office, he still enjoys picking up a sledgehammer from time to time for demos and rehabs, as he did on their restoration of a 1900 home in the Allentown neighborhood, giving it a historically correct facade and modern appointments inside.

Another passion he’s started enjoying again is running. A member of Buffalo State’s track team while earning a degree in marketing, he was the team’s MVP one season. He was also honored for his snowboarding skills, finishing fifth in the USASA (United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association) Snowboarding National Championships when he was 18. He continued to coach the sport until a couple of years back.

Active in a number of civic and charitable activities, James served as the 2022 president of the Women’s Council of Realtors Buffalo Niagara. Under his leadership, a record $40,000 was raised from fundraising events to benefit organizations such as Haven House and Hospice Buffalo. Additionally, he’s served as president of Grant-Amherst Business Association for the past two years and was able to get his district a $500,000 Main Street Grant to fix up local storefronts in the Black Rock District.

Of course, parenthood has a way of changing priorities and despite his often hectic schedule, time with his son is “totally special,” he says. “Any time I get to spend with him just means the world.” He adds his son went to his first closing when he was just two months old.

“The way I look at it,” he says in summing up the mindset behind his success, “You can’t just tiptoe, you can’t just put your foot in the water and be part-time in your entrepreneurial journey. You’ve got to jump in, do a cannonball, make a splash and go for it.”

He’s hoping that’s the way his son will look at it, too.