Real estate
Multi-agency network platform
A real-estate network spanning multiple independent agencies needed a shared platform that respected agency autonomy while letting head office see the consolidated view. SDEN engineered the multi-tenant product that closed the gap.
- Client
- PLACEHOLDER: anonymized multi-agency real-estate network
- Sector
- Multi-agency network platform
- Duration
- PLACEHOLDER: approximately eight months end-to-end
The premise
Real-estate networks face a structural tension: each agency wants control over its listings, its data, and its workflow; head office wants the consolidated reporting that justifies the network membership. Most network platforms resolve this by giving head office full read-through to every agency, which agencies resent, or by giving agencies full isolation, which leaves head office without the data the network exists to provide.
This case is the engineering version of that resolution. Names and figures are PLACEHOLDER-marked; the engineering shape is the real one SDEN ships in real-estate engagements.
Four tools per agency, no consolidated view at the network
Each agency in the network ran its own stack: a CRM, a listings spreadsheet, an e-signature tool, and a separate document store. Reconciliation between them lived in the agent's head. At the network level, there was no consolidated view of listings, no shared valuation data, no cross-agency referral path, and no auditable record of what each agency had shipped to a regulator across a year.
Previous attempts to centralize had failed because they assumed network-side control over the agency's data. The agencies refused, and the platform never reached useful adoption.
Per-agency autonomy with consented network roll-up
SDEN's multi-tenant defaults applied (tenant ID as a required type, PostgreSQL row-level security, per-tenant encryption keys for high-value records) but extended with an explicit consent layer for network-level aggregation. Each agency controlled which fields rolled up to head office; the platform recorded the consent decision per field per agency.
Phase 1: Network governance design
Four weeks. We worked with the network and three representative agencies to define which fields head office needed, which the agencies refused to share, and which were negotiable. Output: a written governance document the network's board signed, plus the data-flow architecture engineered around it.
Phase 2: Multi-tenant platform build
Fourteen weeks. Real Estate's architecture extended for network-level features: per-agency tenant isolation, consented network roll-up, AI-assisted valuation with comparable searches restricted to the agency's portfolio by default and expanded with explicit consent.
Phase 3: Per-agency rollout
Eight weeks. Two agencies onboarded per week, with the lead engineer on the client call each time. Migration of legacy data happened with the agency's read-through, not in a black box. Each agency signed off on the consent decisions before going live.
Phase 4: Network reporting and joint operations
Four weeks. Head office's consolidated dashboards came online after the seventh agency had been live for four weeks, long enough for the data to be representative. Joint on-call rotation during the support window so the network's engineering function inherited the operational posture.
Network adoption without the agency revolt
All PLACEHOLDER (e.g. eight) network agencies adopted the platform within the rollout window. None left the network over the platform change, which the network's previous internal attempt had not achieved. Head office gained the consolidated view it had been asking for, restricted to the fields the agencies consented to share.
Operationally, each agency replaced four tools with one product. The number of regulatory documentation requests head office could fulfill on its own (without asking each agency individually) rose substantially. PLACEHOLDER: confirm the exact volume figures before publishing.
100% PLACEHOLDER
network adoption within the rollout
4 → 1 PLACEHOLDER
tools per agency
0 PLACEHOLDER
agencies left the network over the platform
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