JOHN AND ANGELA JOHNSON
Mermaid Cottage
story by MICAH PEPPERS photos by SUSAN DELOACH and courtesy of THE JOHNSONS
More than 17,000 military members live and work in the Beaufort area at any given time. Most will receive orders to a new location and move on, keeping the Lowcountry a fond memory; however, with John and Angela Johnson, Beaufort is their forever home.
Born into a military family, John bounced around quite a bit growing up. When he was in junior high school, his father retired from the Marine Corps and settled in Texas. After graduating from high school, John enlisted in the Marine Corps and moved away. While on leave, John returned home, where he took his little sister, Belinda, out on the town. Belinda brought along her best friend, Angela, and John and Angela hit it off.
The two began dating long distance, and two years after Angela graduated high school, they were married. The military moved the family all over, and, in 2012, led them to Beaufort. Once the two arrived in the Lowcountry, John and Angela knew they had found their forever home, but John was still on active duty. “The military took me to California, Louisiana, and Maryland while Angela stayed. We see each other on the weekends. I will retire in the near future and will be back down in Beaufort permanently,” John says.
In 2013, Angela earned her real estate license. She was able to learn the business and grow. She received “Best Agent” in Beaufort and had some television appearances. “I was on Beach Hunters on HGTV, helping a couple purchase on Fripp Island and ‘What You Get for the Money in Battery Point.’ I began mostly working with military families.” In 2022, Angela moved to Keller Williams, continuing to sell residential properties all over Beaufort County. In 2019, John also got his real estate license. “I was still on active duty, but I got it to help be her assistant when she needed me.”
Angela had thought about branching out into property management. “I always longed to do property management from the multiple times we moved from duty station to duty station. We lived on base, bought, sold, and rented, so I was accustomed to the ins and outs of real estate. Even when I was a young girl, I pretended to sell my parent’s house, but that’s a whole different story!”
In 2018, John and Angela bought their first short-term rental and named it Mermaid Cottage. “With that property,” Angela explains, “I learned more than expected about property management and loved the industry even more than I imagined I would. I incorporated some of that knowledge into sales, and suddenly much of my clientele turned into folks looking for an investment property because I talked about it so much.”
The piece of the puzzle that was missing was that they needed a property manager, and Angela was strictly sales. John adds, “Angela is very organized and dependable, but she’s a natural salesperson, so I began to take on the property management role.” Angela was delighted for John to join her, and she feels he excels in that role. “I honestly think John thrives in that position because of his military background. The job is about structure, proper procedures, and the bond with the community. He has all those qualifications. He says he’s just manual labor, but he’s so much more than that. He is the property manager, and I’m just the assistant that loves to file paperwork.”
John opened up the Property Management Division for Keller Williams in 2022. Today, “Mermaid Cottage” by Keller Williams is the company name. “We chose that for the nostalgia of going back to the roots of how it all began,” says the couple.
Their property management careers are growing quickly. “We offer long- and short-term rentals, as well as month-to-month. With the weekly Parris Island boot camps, we get families coming in to stay anywhere from two to seven days, and we have properties for them. We also have furnished monthly rentals that we offer tenants. We have a pretty big portfolio.”
Even with John traveling back and forth from Maryland, he can still successfully manage his locations. “We have software to keep track of all our properties. We keep constant communication with our owners and tenants. We are also very upfront and honest with all our clients. We want the owners’ homes to be taken care of the best they can be, and, fortunately, almost everything can be settled over a phone call or remotely.” When he moves back permanently to Beaufort, John can devote himself full-time to their real estate careers.
Angela goes on to add. “We have been on the other side as tenants, and we had a terrible experience. We didn’t want anyone else to go through anything like that. The nice thing about working with military families is we are a tight-knit group, and everyone is always watching each other’s back. We understand that a house is most people’s biggest financial investment, and it can be nerve-wracking, especially for the military, who moves around a lot to trust someone to take care of them. They need to also have confidence in their decision. Should they sell or rent? We help them with that.”
John and Angela love that the military brought them to Beaufort. Angela states, “We are definitely staying here. We bought our forever home in 2015. We bought a fixer-upper that we planned to tear down, but then we just started renovating it. Before Beaufort, we were stationed in Hawaii. I remember thinking, ‘I am not getting on that plane. I don’t want to go to Beaufort. This isn’t going to go well. We will do our three years and move on. That lasted six months, and we attended the Night on the Town Festival. Something shifted during that festival. We knew then that this was actually our home. This is where we wanted to be.” John adds, “We love being near water or anything with water. I live on our sailboat in Maryland. We’ve had a few water adventures, but looking forward to being retired so I can be down here permanently. Being military my whole life, Beaufort is the first place I’ve ever felt at home. The people are so welcoming to military families — well, actually — they’re welcoming to anyone.”
For those interested in buying or renting with John and Angela Johnson, reach out to Keller Williams Realty. The couple is devoted to their company’s mission statement: We intend to be an exemplary Management Company leading the industry with a positive workspace, integrity, trust, and respect for one another as we deliver unmatched performance to our owners and tenants, and joyful vacations to our guests. Our Concierge Service is here to exceed your expectations and ensure clients have memories that last a lifetime!
