On Monday morning, Ms O'Connor announced her intention to resign alongside three other directors and chief executive Cameron Judson. Another director, Nigel Dews, also resigned and the company unveiled new, lower, profit guidance for the current financial year.

Founder and major shareholder John McGrath will become executive chairman under the new structure.

At an event in front of 1000 agents on Tuesday, Mr McGrath described the tumultuous events as the best days of his life.

Asked if the past few days had been tough Ms O'Connor said: "No, not really.''

''It is a very collegiate board considering the challenges it has had. It has been one bushfire after another.''

Ms O'Connor said the amount of information contained in Monday's announcements could have given the impression of a sudden seismic shift in the company when in reality many of the issues had been under consideration for some time.

"It confused people,'' she said.

Ms O'Connor did concede that investors might have been surprised to see the simultaneous announcement that most of the board and the chief executive would depart the company.

Asked what had happened between the AGM late last year and this month to provoke the exodus, Ms O'Connor said she could not discuss matters confidential to the board.

But she stressed that the board and key leadership would still be in place for the preparation of the February results.

She declined to provide any guidance on when exactly she or the other directors would leave the company saying that would need to balance "certainty and stability''.

Board frustration

It is understood that the board has been frustrated with the level of progress in turning McGrath's fortunes around and some directors felt there were options for improving the company that were better suited to a private ownership structure.

One example cited was the ability to pare back the company's 28 corporate owned agencies which could be difficult as a publicly listed entity in the glare of continuous disclosure obligations.

Whilst not a major difference in strategy there were several such issues which suffered from a similar lack of breakthrough solutions.

Ms O'Connor described the leaking of the company's results for the five months to November as "appalling'' and said it was investigating how the information made its way into the public realm.

She defended the company's decision not to release a trading update despite those figures showing McGrath was not tracking in line with its forecasts.

''We wanted to see what the December numbers were and whether there was any rebound,'' she said.

"We didn't believe we needed to release any update in December.''

Those December numbers were not available to the board until Friday's board meeting and it was clear then that the December results, which Ms O'Connor said could be ''volatile'', were not going to make up the ground lost in November.

That made it clear that further savings were needed and prompted the announcement of further restructures.

Founder focus

Ms O'Connor said Mr McGrath would have a special focus on reviving company owned office sales and would be supported in the day to day running of the business by the existing division heads.

She also said she did not expect Mr McGrath to remain as an executive chairman in the long term and that the outgoing board would assist in recruiting new directors.

"John was very frustrated with the performance and wanted to have a more active role in the company. You can't have two CEOs.'' she said.

''John is going to be the clear line of accountability.''

She played down the chances of an immediate privatisation saying there was no proposal in front of the company.

Embattled real estate supremo John McGrath has described the tumultuous start to the new year as the "best few days" of his life as he steps in to steer the business.

On Monday, three directors, including chairman Cass O'Connor and chief executive Cameron Judd, said they would step aside from the business.

The move prompted a 13.79 per cent plunge in the company's share price from 58 cents on Friday to 50 cents and cleared the way for Mr McGrath to become executive chairman.

The McGrath real estate network is one of the largest in Australia with 97 offices across the east coast, the majority in NSW. The company listed on the ASX in late 2015 at $2.10 a share.

Mr McGrath on Tuesday fronted 1000 agents and team members from the real estate network at the company's annual "kickstart" event at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.

"We will be moving forward at a pace not seen before. This business has incredible greatness and resilience," Mr McGrath said, according to a copy of remarks provided by the company.

"We will be laser-focused, customer-centric, fast, agile and our innovative heritage will once again come to the fore.

''I have more passion and determination than I have ever had."

In his closing comments to agents, he told the room he was "excited" to be working for the company in his new capacity, and that the efforts of staff had made the transition a positive experience.

"It's the best few days of my life rather than what could've been the worst," he said, thanking the agents for their support.

When Mr McGrath asked the audience what they learnt from conference, one agent spoke up about the management shake-up.

"The best thing I got from today so far was that you're taking back the wheel," the agent said, to applause from the room.

McGrath shares closed at 51 cents on Tuesday evening.