It was in 2001 that father and son moved to Myrtle Beach, where Slattery Sr. owned a second home and planned to exit the construction industry and slow down life a bit. Instead, Slattery Sr. worked building subdivisions in the area and, when Slattery Jr. graduated from Horry Georgetown Technical College in 2013 with a project management degree and earned his South Carolina residential builder’s license, he partnered with son to open what is now Beach Custom Homes. 

“It was something my son wanted to get involved in and what he went to school for, so I decided to get back into it because it was something I always enjoyed doing,” says Slattery Sr. “It was a way to get him started and also work as a father and son.”

In addition to father and son, Slattery Jr.’s stepmother, Jane Slattery, is also part-owner, works as a realtor, and takes care of the company’s bookkeeping. She and Slattery Jr.’s wife, Bianca, also help clients select all of the custom finishes and materials, plus communicate with vendors. Outside of the family, Beach Custom Homes also has one superintendent on staff, several longtime subcontractors, and a few select architects.

The customized dream home results of Beach Custom Homes can be seen throughout many prestigious neighborhoods up and down the Grand Strand, such as Waterway Palms, Plantation Lakes, The Battery, Carolina Waterway, Cypress River and Wildhorse, to name a few. Many of their homes are three-story direct luxury waterfront homes. 

Over their history, they have built 100-plus custom homes and helped their clients bring to fruition their vision from ideas shown to the builder to recreate. Currently they also have a project in Longs with 1,500-square-foot townhouses.

“We specialize in turning a plot of dirt into somebody’s vision from the ground up,” says Slattery Jr. “From the start of purchasing land, all the way to designing the house to the finished turnkey product.

“What separates us is that we’re actually out on the job every day,” he continues. “We don’t just hire people to go build your house. We are meeting with you onsite. I mean, I start my day at around 5:30 every morning and go to every job site that I have. Between one of the owners, there is not a day that goes by that we’re not on site of one of our jobs, not sitting in an office all day.”

Richard Dillman, a past client who hired Beach Custom Homes out of several other companies to build his home in The Battery in Myrtle Beach, says he appreciated the Slattery’s honesty.

“They did what they said they were going to do and beyond, and that made a big difference,” he says. “When I met Bryan, my wife, Judy, and I both liked him and we met his father, and we decided to go with them. It worked out very well and couldn’t have been any better.”

This is exactly what the family at Beach Custom Homes strives for: building relationships beyond the four walls of their flawless customized homes.

“When we build houses and we leave them, I know these families are going to create memories,” says Slattery Sr. “A lot of our homeowners we will still grab a drink with or go out with occasionally. We build good relationships and friendships with some of them.”

“Most of our work comes from word of mouth from previous customers,” Slattery Jr. agrees, “which I think says a lot about our business, too.”

Matt Young actually just happened to run into Slattery Jr. when looking with his wife for a home for their family of six in the Waterway Palms neighborhood. 

“We had been looking at a home down the street that was for sale, and he happened to be next door building a new house,” says Young. “He was outside and I asked him if he was a builder and we started having a conversation. Right away, we really hit it off because he started to ask questions about our situation, our family, and he started to understand what we were looking for and the budget we were looking for.”

Young says that Slattery discussed the potential of a new build for his family on one of the available lots and quickly eased his fear of a new build – something he and his wife never ventured into.

“It was a foreign process to us, so we were a bit scared of the idea,” says Young, “but we saw some of his homes in the neighborhood and we were super impressed. … I think it was his real approach that helped. A lot of times, when you’re talking to somebody, you can tell if they are engaged and really trying to be that person that’s going to help and get you what you want. We sensed that right away, which he did every step of the way. He doubled down in that sense from every nuance to consider our perspective and the situation we were in.”

Tyler Young and his wife, Catie, friends of Slattery Jr. and Bianca, can also vouch for Slattery’s integrity. Beach Custom Homes built the Youngs a new home in the Wild Horse community.

“Bianca and my wife are really good friends, so her helping to pick everything out, like granite and flooring, made it an easy process,” says Young. “We felt comfortable with Bryan because he’s such a good builder, so we gave him the free reign to make some decisions.”

In the next few years, Slattery Sr., who turned 60 in May, says he plans to retire and pass the torch of Beach Custom Homes to his son, age 32. 

“As my retirement approaches, the one thing I’m most proud of is running a family business and being able to produce as many homes as we did in a timely manner,” says Slattery Sr. “To be able to turn that over to a new generation and watch them grow with it is going to be extremely rewarding because I hope my son does better than I do – I think that’s any parent’s wish – and I have the utmost confidence that he will. He’s very good at what he does, he’s very personable, and just to watch him grow it, and maybe grow it bigger than it is now, would be the biggest reward I could get.”