From butcher shop to $90 million in 10 days: The rise of agent Michael Coombs
When Michael Coombs, one of Sydney’s record-smashing agents, stood at the gates of a Mosman mansion at age 21, he had hopes as big as that colossal floor plan.
But the boy who started his working life washing meat trays at a butcher shop dared not dream he would one day sell that Stanley Avenue property for many millions. Nor that he would show Hollywood star Zac Efron through a Byron Bay home, or host two inspections in Mosman for the Beckham family.
Coombs, founder and director of Lower North Shore agency Atlas, was studying real estate at night at TAFE, after deciding a career as a landscaper wasn’t for him.
Part of the course was to walk the gilded streets of Mosman – one of Australia’s most expensive neighbourhoods, and 25 years on, it is now Coombs’ stomping ground – to note the iconic homes.
“Stanley Avenue is one of the non-waterfront streets, and this was a big sandstone castle,” he says. “I remember looking at the house, standing at the gates, as someone who lived in a tiny house and grew up financially constrained, in complete awe and admiration.
“I looked at it and thought, ‘Wow’. About 20 years later, I sold that house.”
He did so for more than $17 million.
Coombs says his work ethic was instilled in him by his mother and grandmother. His $2.50-per-hour job in a butchery as a 12-year-old paid for bikes and surfboards.
As such, he has employed female agents in leadership positions and is proud of their “powerful” impact on Atlas, his six-year-old business.
“The business is not centred on me,” Coombs says, “It’s completely the opposite. I have a great team, including a lot of successful female agents, and agents who are dealing with our offshore clients.”
Coombs has a little black book of international buyers and expats that is valued by vendors.
Atlas holds the record for nine of the 12 suburbs it specialises in, including one in Northbridge for more than $40 million, and a $40 million transaction in Mosman.
In 2022, Coombs sold $90 million worth of real estate in 10 days.
Those vast networks and extraordinary numbers have prompted Atlas’ fresh expansion into the Southern Highlands.
Far from the frenetic pace of property, practising Ayurvedic medicine has been a source of harmony for the father of two.
He launched Ayurvedic health brand One Eleven with friend Nicho Plowman and treasures his time with wife Mia and sons Boston and George.
If Coombs could speak to his younger self, standing at those imposing Mosman gates, he would say, “Back yourself”.
“My parents, my mother and my grandmother ingrained into me to focus on the positives in life, set little goals and achieve them,” Coombs says.
“That has always been my philosophy. I have big goals, too, but with me and my team, I focus on what one person can do daily, consistency over time, and that produces outcomes.”
Coombs’ recent sold properties
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