McGrath Real Estate giant James Dack makes shock exit from multi-million dollar empire he started with John McGrath

JAMES Dack has shocked the property world by quietly quitting the agency he set up with real estate industry titan John McGrath, Annette Sharp reveals.

James Dack and John McGrath set up McGrath Real Estate together.

A QUARTER century after a little known Sydney real estate agent put a lofty proposal to a teammate during a game of touch football on a Woolloomooloo playing field – to jointly establish Sydney’s most prestigious real estate agency – elite property agent James Dack has walked away from the business he co-founded with industry titan John McGrath.

Dack cleared out his office at McGrath Real Estate’s headquarters in Edgecliff on Friday night and closed the door on a chapter of his life that established him as one of the nation’s leading property agents. It also made him a lot of money into the bargain.

This week he begins his career afresh as the boss of his own private investment company, Sunshine Group Investments.

One person likely to be shocked by the bombshell is his longtime associate John McGrath, chief executive of the business that bears his name.

James Dack and John McGrath set up McGrath Real Estate together.

James Dack and John McGrath in the early days of starting their real estate business together.

According to industry sources, the two men, partners in a company that turns over more than $10 billion in residential sales a year, have not spoken for more than six years.

Dack, 53, isn’t sure of the time frame but admits it might be six years.

The athletic father-of-two and son-in-law to Hungry Jacks’ businessman Jack Cowin refuses to confirm a rift although close sources say he and McGrath fell out in 2007 following a disagreement over the structure of the rapidly expanding company.

The McGrath company profile makes little mention of Dack’s contribution to the business with which he has been associated since 1987 and a leading force in since 1989 – an omission which might suggest Dack has been erased from the history books.

In their day, Dack and McGrath’s partnership was the stuff of legend in Sydney real estate circles.

“McGrath managed the marketing and auctioneering and I did the sales and sales management,” Dack recalls of the early days.

“It was great fun when it started. He auctioned the properties - he loved a captive audience even then - and I’d do the selling.

“There was a fellow well known in auction circles who used to say of us we were like (Denis) Lillee and (Rod) Marsh. When the auction was done it was ‘Bowled Lillee, Caught Marsh’. We were pretty good I have to admit.”

But that’s a long time ago.

When asked if McGrath has been informed at press time that he has quit the business, Dack says matter-of-factly: “I’ll send the company an email this weekend. He’ll know I’m not there anymore. An empty office might leave some clues.”

James Dack, the multi-millionaire sales director of McGrath Real Estate, at the housing commission estate unit block in Sydney where he lived as a boy.

James Dack as an auctioneer during his real estate career.

From this week Dack is in the business of oil and gas prospecting.

The respected NSW PCYC board member, who also happens to be a keen Roosters supporter (as was McGrath at one time – though of late he’s been barracking for Russell Crowe’s Rabbitohs…), is forging a new career motivated in part by the suicide death of his much-loved but troubled younger brother Stephen four years ago.

His new company, Sunshine Group, bears his brother’s nickname “Sunshine”.

“I was shattered by Stephen’s death,” he says, is a rare use of the word “death”.

He still refers to that shattering event as Stephen’s “leaving”.

“It was quite possibly the worst thing that could have happened to me. I was in a million pieces. I was his father, his brother and his best friend,” Dack says, almost five years on.

Cover of the book Sunshine & Shadow-A brother’s story about James and Stephen Dack.

A baby picture of James Dack, who grew up in a housing commission estate with his parents and siblings.

Dack’s childhood growing up in a Woolloomooloo housing commission estate is as much a part of his remarkable story as his rise to the top of the real estate game.

Raised by a devoted mother and alcoholic father in a rough and tumble corner of impoverished Sydney, Dack assumed the role of breadwinner and family protector at age 14 when his father abandoned the clan leaving him to care for two younger siblings, Stephen and sister Alison, and a mother who would succumb to cancer when he was 21.

Stephen Dack’s battle with drugs, gambling and alcoholism were recorded in the book Sunshine & Shadow: A brother’s story – a book which documents the brothers’ hard luck story but which Stephen never saw published. He committed suicide in 2009 while author Larry Writer was completing it.

“When my brother passed away I took the time to stop and sit quietly and think, and I worked out that what made me happiest was working with kids from a similar background to mine in a community that is challenged also by men and women who have found themselves homeless for whatever reason,” Dack says with conviction.

“The main aim of starting my own business is to control my own destiny, to create wealth through my own endeavours, to assist the local community in various programs that may be run by the PCYC or the Matthew Talbot Hostel for homeless men predominately.”

James Dack has walked away from the real estate industry. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Dack looks to be off to a strong start with Sunshine.

His investment in Perth oil and gas exploration company Carnarvon Petroleum three years ago has tripled in value following the discovery of what pundits are describing as a new Australian oil field in the offshore Canning Basin off WA.

Dack is one of its biggest private shareholders in the exploration company with some 30 million shares.

While acquiring Carnarvon shares, he has been simultaneously selling down his McGrath investment. He finally sold out of the business altogether six months ago and with no financial interest in McGrath Real Estate is free to walk unencumbered.

News that Dack has pulled the pin on the real estate game will likely come as a shock to the 600 staff at 60 McGrath franchises, as well as a number of well-heeled prospective spring clients.

As the company’s director of sales, Dack is revered as the man who turned over $100 million in sales per annum and was trusted with the task of selling the homes of Sydney corporate kingpins including Geoff Dixon, John Singleton, David Gyngell, David Leckie and Peter Bond.

For 19 consecutive years, he was also McGrath’s number one salesman.

He admits that record brought him little joy and says without a trace of sadness: “It’s time to let others rise.”

Although still refusing to comment on what his longtime business partner McGrath will make of his empty office come Monday, Dack says simply: “John’s always been a bit of an enigma. I’m not sure what he’ll think … He might have to call property management, but I’m sure he’ll work it out.”