4 Challenges of Developing Multiple Real Estate Websites With a Common Codebase 

If you find it a challenge to write new code for each website you support — especially when they share common elements or pages — a common codebase might be your solution.  

Xome® has multiple real estate white label websites that share a common codebase due to their shared UI and functionality. A white label website is a pre-built and customizable website created by one company that is rebranded and sold by another company as their own product or service. 

This allows for reusable components and a more standardized process, as opposed to using separate codebases. As a result, our development teams can push out updates quicker while delivering a smooth end-user experience. 

However, there are several challenges our development teams face when developing multiple websites that use a common codebase. There may be different requirements between websites or common code changes that may unintentionally affect other websites, among many other things that we must keep in mind when pushing out changes to production. 

1. There are different business and functional requirements of each website.

The business and functional requirements of each website may vary wildly. We try to keep core functionality consistent across websites, but there are going to be deviations that increase the amount of code management needed.  

For instance, there are significant differences in how users log into each site. Some use standard logins while others use Single Sign-On (SSO). There may be certain functionality that depends on external websites that we do not control. Those external websites may experience periods of downtime or may have code changes that break the compatibility with our websites. 

Solution: We rely on Quality Assurance (QA) unit testing and full regression to ensure that all critical functionality in each white label website is working as intended. We may also work with the different white label websites and business stakeholders to get on board with common functionality when deviating from it may cause a disproportionate amount of work.  

2. The websites each have their own unique design specifications. 

Fonts present their own set of unique challenges. Each of Xome’s white label websites have different fonts with different sizing and kerning characteristics that might cause one- or two-pixel misalignments, even when the font size and line heights are defined identically.  

Watching for and identifying those misalignments is what poses most challenging as they may not be initially noticeable depending on context surrounding certain design elements. They may be more noticeable in elements such as call-to-action buttons where the text is meant to be vertically aligned perfectly. 

Solution: When fonts aren’t displaying correctly with the layout and UI in certain parts of the website, we implement custom CSS overrides for those problematic areas in each white label website. However, we try to minimize these overrides since they bloat up the total amount of CSS.  

3. Common code changes may inadvertently affect other websites. 

Common code changes on one website may inadvertently affect another website and cause it to break. This is something developers must be aware of and have processes in place to monitor and fix any errors caused by these changes before pushing to production. 

Solution: When applying a global code change, we still need to manually check each website to verify that the change has been applied correctly. This is where QA must verify the critical functionality of all websites before every release to production. This applies to both global changes and changes to individual websites.  

4. Development work varies from website to site. 

White label websites require varying amounts of development work depending on the complexity and requirements of each. Those with less documentation and maintenance required may come with more surprises than the project originally planned for.  

For example, if a webpage has not been updated for 6 months, developers may not recall the technical nuances of the page, how the code is organized, and how the page logic works. Because of this, developers may spend more time getting accustomed to the webpage when making new required code changes. 

Solution: Website-specific code deviations are not ideal. If it’s code that is not common and only applies to one page that is rarely touched, then developers naturally become increasingly unfamiliar with that code as time passes. In the case of code deviations, establishing up-to-date documentation in a centralized knowledge base or wiki can help developers retrieve insights about each webpage’s functionality and recent changes.  

How to work around common codebase challenges  

Despite the several challenges that come with developing white label sites, those challenges do dissipate over time. The more extensive testing and refinement that common codebases undergo, the more stable and reliable they become over time.

Real estate technology companies like Xome significantly benefit from this because it reduces the risk of technical bugs and downtime for their clients’ websites, which can be off-putting for the end-user and cause higher bounce rates. 

As our development teams at Xome plan for future development projects and fixes, we ensure that needed stability to maintain the quality and performance of our digital products. 

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