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Having a mentor who shares wisdom and experience is paramount to success.
AAREPLA fondly remembers William E. Yarbro, President of the organization, a pillar in the commercial real estate community, and a tireless champion of diversity in the CRE industry. More importantly, to those lucky to have known him — a family member, friend, colleague, mentor.
In his honor, AAREPLA has established the William E. Yarbro, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund, with a generous seed contribution from Keller Williams Inglewood. For anyone wishing to honor Bill in this way, you can make a donation here.
In 1984, William “Bill” Yarbro started his journey to becoming a seasoned real estate professional at CB Richard Ellis New York City where he began leasing office space downtown at Wall St. marketplace.
After seven successful years at CBRE, he moved to Newport Beach, CA in the early 1990s to join Resolution Trust Corporation where he was responsible for selling $50,000,000 of REO assets from failed savings and loans. In 1992, he had the distinction of completing the largest commercial sale in Orange County, with the sale of the Guardian Center retail center.
He then went into residential lending at the boutique mortgage brokerage firm Harnan Financial Group. There he was a top producer for several years before starting their commercial lending division and then moving on to NEBO Capital, a boutique commercial mortgage Broker.
With the collapse of financial markets and a brief stint as a loan officer at Bank of America, he moved to Exclusive Realty in January 2010 doing sales and rentals of beachfront homes and apartments. In his first year, he completed 30 leases and his first sale as an agent. This was also the first sale in the beach office of Exclusive.
From there he moved to the Brentwood office of Coldwell Banker and just recently moved to the Inglewood office of Keller Williams where he specialized in commercial real estate sales and leasing.
Like his late brother, Eric S. Yarbro, Bill was a stalwart advocate for diversity, and his philanthropic efforts were concentrated on promoting career advancement for people of color. His legacy will forever be remembered as a seasoned real estate professional.
But also holding esteemed leadership roles in several nonprofits including, The New Leaders (TNL), African American Real Estate Professionals Los Angeles (AAREPLA), and his support of Project REAP (The Real Estate Associate Program).
