Featured Customer

With a good deal of apprehension, we decided to build our home on the Massachusetts coast. You always hear such horror stories. Working with Dana turned out to be the opposite of a horror story: painless, productive, and easy.

The first indication of what was to come was Dana’s communication style. Whenever we reached out to him, we got immediate responses. When we made a request, he immediately followed through. When scary sounding issues came to light, Dana was there immediately, solving the problem.

We have been in the house a month now. A few weeks after we moved in, an issue came up with the well. I texted Dana at 8:00 at night and he immediately texted back troubleshooting. When that didn’t work, he told me, “I’ll be there first thing tomorrow morning.” He arrived at 8:00 and had the issue resolved that morning. What more could you expect?

Note the repeated use of the word “immediately.” Usually we heard from him within the hour or a couple of hours. At most, he got back to to us the next day.

Dana worked with us to design our home. He was equal parts giving us what we asked for and providing suggestions based on his experience. He produced a good quality home and kept to the timeline he had outlined. We are very pleased with our home and had a great experience with Dana.

Simply put, he is a find.

Susan & Michael Dooley

The decision to build a new home during a pandemic with the unknowns of supply shortages is not for the faint of heart. Enter Dana Nilson. Had I not gone with Dana I would have not built, be it modular or stick built. Period.

Dana is a man of great integrity and detail. Having built, renovated and flipped homes in the past communication is key and often subpar. Dana’s continual but never overly long winded communication is second to none. This alone stood out to me as did his knowledge, ability to troubleshoot and juggle the construction schedule, keeping it tight and moving.

The decision to build a modular/systems built home has proved to be what I had anticipated it to be—a more efficient, less time consuming, less costly but not less valuable home that parallels stick built homes.

As a real estate agent, I can attest the stigma of modulars being a bargain basement choice for those looking for one is in the distant past. Westchester homes are built with quality products and under the cover of winter weather thus avoiding damage and delays. Once delivered the utilities are tied in with ease and the interior buttoned up with your own custom choices or those that are offered.

I am beyond satisfied with my end result, continue to get compliments on my home almost daily and in turn continue to refer to Dana.

Jennifer Capobianco

Our home in New Seabury is the third house we have built and our experience with Dana and Southeastern Development Company was by far the best. The construction work was of high quality and Dana was always honest and fair with us. We stayed on schedule and we moved in at the estimated date.

Dana has a particular eye for the details and made some great suggestions to enhance the final appearance. It was a pleasure to work with him throughout the building process.

As a second home and being a considerable distance away we had to put a lot of faith and trust in Dana. He became almost part of the family. We never lost any sleep knowing Dana was on site managing the construction. We were always updated on the progress through emails, phone calls, text messages and pictures. We felt like we were on the job site every day. And he responded to our questions almost instantaneously any time of day or night and even on weekends.

Lastly, the transparency of the financial aspects of the project simplified a very complicated process. The presentation and detail of each budget line, allowed us to be secure and knowledgeable about every aspect of the project, and your support made us comfortable about how our money was being invested.

Sue & I again want to thank you for such a wonderful job with our vacation home. From start to finish, we couldn’t be happier. Feel free to stop by anytime and if you would like to show off your fine workmanship, please let us know and we’ll do a tour. Again, a big thank you to you and all of your sub-contractors on your team who helped make this happen.

Thank you

Sue and Dave Herdman

My wife, Michele, and I selected Dana and his company Southeastern Development Co., LLC for modular home construction after interviewing and pricing “stick built” contractors and “wall system” contractors. For us, modular made the most sense since the project could be completed in half the time of a stick built house, was more cost effective than either a stick built or wall system, and will have a higher HERS (Energy Efficiency) rating than either of the other approaches.

Dana helped us design our home, plan the grading as the site has a large hill, work with us on the budget, handle the permitting and inspections, coordinate with Westchester Modular Homes, and act as Project Manager. He has a great sense of what works, especially for a home near the ocean, and a practical approach to solving the challenges that inevitably arise with new home construction on an unimproved lot. Dana also designed and constructed a porch and a two room addition on-site after the modular “boxes” were delivered and set.

I strongly recommend visiting actual modular houses to understand the true inside dimensions of each “box”. It’s hard to get a sense of the space from drawings alone. One other item to think about is including insulation between the first and second floors from noise reduction in addition to the insulation “envelope” around the house. Spend time getting the design and drawings right. Dana provided 3D images/renderings to help visualize the finished product.

While we have all heard horror stories about contractors, our experience with Dana has been excellent. He does what he promises within the time frame he promises. He communicates often and well. During much of this project, I have been out of the country and Dana arranged Project Reviews and drawing reviews using conferencing software over the Internet. He also installed a webcam so I could follow the construction progress remotely.

Michele Heard and Gene Dillon

This letter describes my recent experience with SDC Modular and Epoch Homes in building my new oceanfront home in Wareham, MA. My family moved into our new home on the 14th of July, 2007 and we are extremely satisfied with both the design-build process as well as the finished product. The project was completed on budget and within schedule. It successfully passed all inspections and is exactly what we ordered in every detail.

Being an engineer by trade, I expended a great deal of effort over eight months evaluating both modular home manufacturers and their associated builder/dealers; looking at a half or dozen different candidates active in my area. It became apparent early in the evaluation process that manufacturers and builder/dealers had to be evaluated as an integrated team, since the finished product requires a great deal of coordination between the team members. Evaluation criteria for selection of the team focused upon the following elements that were important to me:

Modular Home Material Quality – Lumber grades and dimensions, window and door quality, manufacturing processes.
Affordability – Turnkey project costs had to be guaranteed within my fixed budget.

Design Support Services – We wanted to custom design every detail of our home and required extensive design services from both the builder and the manufacturer.

Site Services – Our site contained a cottage built in 1949 that needed to be removed and the entire site required reconfiguration for the foundation, water and septic system.

Past Performance – Customer references, previous project site visits, better business bureau and other sources indicative of manufacturer and builder performance were evaluated. Several candidates were quickly eliminated during this evaluation.

Epoch and SDC Modular ranked very high in all five criteria individually and as a team. The existence of a professional intimacy between Epoch and SDC Modular became very evident to me during the interviews of both parties as well as review of previously finished projects. Both SDC Modular and Epoch are committed to customer satisfaction and are capable to work together as a team to achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

Mark Blazejewski

Customer | Wareham

We just completed our new home Dana built for us – On time & On budget. It’s our dream home 2300 square meet – 3 bedrooms, lots of living space, windows and decks in a coastal community in souther Mass.

What a pleasure it was to work with him. We start at the design phase. Lots of ideas & collaboration – he would often come back with options based on our direction.

He recommended Winchester Homes for the hosue build itself. We visited the factory and agreed they were a quality builder. And the speed and efficiency he operated with his subs was spot on:

March 15 – remove old house.
In 3 weeks he had the foundation poured and ready for the house (FYI – most rainy spring on record for this area).

The house arrived on April 17th, installed in 1 day on the 19th. We took permitted occupancy 8 weeks later. And yes everything was done exterior, decks, floors, painting, etc.

We found working with Dana a great experience and highly recommend him – please feel free to contact us directly if needed!

Arthur and Cindy Sweeter

Customer | Westport

My wife and I had always dreamed of building a new home, and we had some very specific ideas of what we wanted. A house that appealed to our more contemporary preferences was just not available as a stock plan. We knew we’d need something custom. We interviewed several other builders before we met with Dana Nilson, owner of Southeastern Development Company.

Dana’s skills were immediately apparent. After just one meeting and a few emails, he presented us with a custom floor plan that hit the mark. Dana really listened to us and understood our vision, making many helpful suggestions. His mastery of computer-aided drafting software is impressive and he was patient and communicative as we went back and forth with several revisions until it was perfect.

SDC’s greatest strength besides Dana himself is his choice of expert subcontractors. Westchester Modular Homes Inc. manufactured the high quality modules and their delivery team set the house in just one (very exciting!) day. Jim Arne’s crew handled the difficult boulder-laden site work, while Brian’s carpentry and finish work made the inside functional and beautiful. An army of other skilled craftsmen worked on our home and every one of them was professional and courteous to me, my wife, and our three year-old daughter. Dana coordinated them all and managed every aspect of the project. He was timely, organized, and flexible – keeping us involved and informed with frequent updates.

The project was completed on schedule and within our budget. The resulting home is just like we envisioned it! Efficient in its use of both space and energy, it is a pleasure to live in. Our family will enjoy this special place for generations.

If you are looking to build a new home, I highly recommend you consider SDC Modular for your project. We are very pleased with our home and our decision to go with Dana Nilson. I am more than happy to answer any additional questions you may have about our amazing home-building experience!

Nathaniel Moor

Customer | Marion

I just wanted to follow up the guesthouse project with a letter of thanks. The project really came out perfect. The building matches exactly to our existing home. All the custom details we agreed on showed up perfectly. Everything from the design process, set day and finish work was finished on schedule. It was also a pleasant surprise to not have any extra costs or unknown line items show up after our initial quote. There are so many benefits to use this type of modular construction. It was great to learn about these during the sales process as well as during the final steps to completion. I also must commend you on your choice of sub-contractors. Everyone who showed up here at the property was first class. They respected our home and personal space as well as got the job done on time and within budget. Please also pass along my thanks to Brian who was here day in and day out, like clockwork to manage the subs and keep everyone moving forward without delay.

Thanks again and please feel free to give my name and number as a reference. I also invite you show the project anytime to prospective clients. You should be proud to have them see the great addition that you and your team made to our home and family.

George T Fearons

Customer | Mattapoisett

I recently was at a social gathering and it turns out my generation is one that is either renovating, moving and building, or downsizing to another community. I was the only one in a group of 20 that had done one of the above and had successfully moved in, based on a promised time schedule. Second, thanks to Dana Nilson of Southeastern Development Co., LLC, the issues and choices that in most building projects can cause delays, were decided in the design phase. This is where Dana begins working with his clients with great patience and focus. One takes ideas, dreams and possibilities, and Dana helps place your concept into a plan that can work within the framework of a modular building. Our expectations matched what was delivered! I think that modular buildings work for good reasons; simplicity, quality, and cost. Third, to have the various trades so well coordinated, meant that work was done in a professional and timely manner. It was, in fact, fun to watch the progress! It was the best Lego project with which we every got to participate in from foundation to roof!

Fourth, when problems do arise, Dana’s problem-solving skills are excellent and solutions are realistic and resolved with no delays. Every site must have its challenges. It feels now like what we had built was always a part of our house and lifestyle. The neighbors are happy, and our family is very happy. I admire Dana Nilson and the type of business he has developed to improve housing that is both affordable and accessible. I would recommend SDC without hesitation.

Karin Wood

Customer | Dartmouth

I have worked with Dana on various projects over the past five years and have nothing but the utmost respect for his professionalism and knowledge of the building industry. To me he is the kind of customer that I wish I had more of. He is extremely personable, conscientious, detail oriented, and quality minded. Dana has a background in engineering and commercial construction prior to his successful career as a home builder which gives him a broad understanding and experience of a wide breadth of building situations . I have personally recommended him to consumers many times and will continue to do so. Dana is very highly regarded by his product suppliers and peers in the industry. I would consider Dana an expert in the industry and have no doubt that he will quickly become an asset to your organization and your clients.

If you need and additional information or have additional questions please do not hesitate to contact me in the future.

David Bruni

Customer | SE Massachusetts

To answer your question, yes, both my wife and I are very happy with the house. Dana’s attention to detail has culminated in an outstanding house that has generated many compliments from friends, neighbors, and other contractors. As future reference working with Dana has been a great experience as evidence by his work – skilled sub-contractors, timely completion, coordination with Epoch, and daily communication – I would recommend him highly for future projects.

Peter Noyer

Customer | Marion

Through SDC Modular, I recently purchased a custom designed Epoch modular home. The house and the building process turned out to be way beyond my expectations.

All of the credit goes to Dana Nilson, owner of SDC Modular, who worked with me to design my home to my specifications. He supervised every step and detail of the process and was always available to discuss any concerns I had. Any issues that came up were resolved immediately. All estimated deadlines were met from demolition of my existing home, excavation & foundation, to delivery of the house and receipt of my occupancy permit.

It is with great pleasure that I recommend Dana Nilson and SDC Modular to anyone wishing to build a custom modular home. The experience was exciting and stress free. I love my new home.

Claire Milligan

Customer | Wareham