Our Approach
Listen. Visualize. Engineer. Execute.
An engineer's approach to complex building problems and challenges on California's Central Coast for more than 30 years.
Our Story
Engineered for performance. Built to endure.
Professionally educated in civil and structural engineering (Oregon Institute of Technology, Cal Poly SLO), Greg Nester built his career and master builder reputation developing and building 13 local upscale residential subdivisions and over 500 local custom and semi-custom homes by getting difficult sites right the first time—steep hillsides, coastal exposure, oak trees, and San Luis Obispo County regulatory impacts.
Demanding lots require knowledge, precision, and the right support connections before a single foundation is poured.
Today, Greg Nester Homes and Greg Nester Construction & Development is busy with custom homes and legacy estates and provides ranch, farm and vineyard improvements, support and restorations. Greg still likes being in the dirt.
The work has changed scale over three decades. The standard hasn’t: “Build it right, and build it to last.”
Experience & Perspective
More than one kind of ground to cover.
Greg has spent over 30 years planning, permitting and building ag barns and metal storage buildings, collaborating on and developing master planned estates and ranches, and providing farm-support improvements and restoration, alongside his career as a locally rooted residential subdivision developer and luxury custom home builder.
The value of that background is practical, critical judgment, a keen eye and understanding of property, knowing the right people to bring into the conversation, and being able to separate what is ready to build from what first needs investigation or approval.
How We Help
Start with the property.
Then make the plan.
A defined assessment helps identify the intended use, likely jurisdiction and approval path, practical site constraints, and preliminary scope and budget risks.
If a project is a good fit, we can coordinate the next steps and develop a construction proposal. Specialist studies, design, permit fees, and agency decisions are addressed separately as needed.
Discuss your propertyBefore We Estimate
A useful first conversation covers:
- 01Property address, APN & permitting jurisdiction
- 02Intended use, zoning & acreage
- 03Access, water & wastewater
- 04Grading, drainage & existing permits
- 05Working budget & desired timing
County procedures discussed here generally apply to unincorporated SLO County property. For a city property, we first confirm the actual permitting jurisdiction.
Born That Way
Greg Nester
Greg Nester applies his race-champion mindset to the art and science of his building. Initially building racetracks for his Hot Wheels, he graduated to tinker-toy high-rises and erector-set bridges. By age seven he rode a Honda 50 on- and off-road, purchased one Oregon summer with berry-picking savings, graduated to bigger, badder bikes, and became a local legend in rural Sherwood, Oregon with his self-rebuilt ’56 Chevy truck as a teen not old enough to drive. Legally.
Giving up motocross after marriage and four boys, he eventually found his passion’s home and is a consistent champion professional Spec Corvette racer with NASA and SCCA.
A skilled grading engineer, Greg analyzes property the way a driver reads a track: evaluate the conditions, solve for the forces at work, and execute with precision under pressure. He thinks in loads, spans, soils, and failure points, taming even difficult hillsides and complex projects into finely tuned systems, not a loose collection of parts.
Greg’s visual and spatial mental abilities let him “build” a home in his mind before a shovel hits the dirt—just as he anticipates a corner long before turn-in on a race lap.
On the Track
Race-bred thinking, applied to building.
Every project is treated like a championship run: careful planning, precise setup, and constant review and optimization from grading and foundation through framing, buildout and finish. Seemingly small adjustments that matter—site drainage, structural details, mechanical and electrical systems, responding to unexpected curve balls—are tuned with the same care Greg gives to tire pressures, alignment, road conditions and aero balance.
Checkered flag: first-place finish 
Spec Corvette podium, P1 
Early days on two wheels
With Our Clients
On site, side by side.
At Greg Nester Homes, luxury is not just about finishes; it’s about performance—homes that sit confidently on challenging sites, flow naturally with how people live, and age gracefully over decades. Greg stays hands-on with every project from first meeting to final finish.
Greg with homeowner Eric Penn 
Touring Anza Lot 5 with the Penns 
Client walk-through on site
Let's Begin
Tell us about the property.
Whether your need is a stick built or metal building barn, ranch maintenance, restoration or improvement, lot split, parcel map, an ADU, guest house, luxury custom built home, or a project that needs a clearer path forward, share the basics with us to help us determine if we can be of assistance.