Unlike many new associates, Lund knew exactly what he was getting into—after all, he’d stuffed flyers and helped out at his parents’ real estate brokerage throughout high school. But instead of making things easier, his background only added to the pressure to succeed. “With my family already established in the business, I felt I had to perform above expectations,” says Lund, who started in the business in 2003. Lund set ambitious sales goals and met them; he closed $34 million in sales and 46 transaction sides in 2006.

High-tech customization: A big contributor to his sales success is a customized direct-mail piece for each individual neighborhood he farms. Using the skills he acquired studying computer science at Arizona State University, Lund created a statistical analysis program in Excel that personalizes each piece with neighborhood market statistics. As he figures it, 300 mailing pieces result in one listing appointment, and 90 percent of appointments become clients.

From analyst to author: Lund was also able to parlay data from his spreadsheet into a regular real estate page in the regional 40,000-circulation Carlsbad Business Journal, published by the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce.