No theme to edit
Sierra builds the pages itself. The only places to add code are content boxes, shared widgets, the Agent Bio field and one site-wide head code box.
Case study
Custom team and agent pages inside Sierra Interactive, on one website only
Charlottesville Luxury Homes wanted a team page and agent profiles that matched a luxury brand. Their site runs on Sierra Interactive, where there is no theme to edit, and a second website shares the same agent bios.
- Client
- Charlottesville Luxury Homes
- Industry
- Luxury real estate, Central Virginia
- Platform
- Sierra Interactive CRM
- Scope
- Team page and 7 agent profiles
- 7agent profiles redesigned
- 2websites on one CRM account
- 0changes visible on the second site
- 0Sierra features deleted
The challenge
Why this was harder than a normal redesign
On WordPress, a new team page is a normal design job. Sierra Interactive is a real estate CRM that also runs the website, so almost every usual tool was missing.
The editor strips code
The Agent Bio editor removes style blocks when it saves, so the old sidebar, a duplicate name and photo header, Sierra’s own agent list and a “Language Spoken” filter kept showing through.
Two websites, one set of agents
The same CRM account also runs towncville.com. Each agent bio is a single field that both sites display, and the client wanted the new design on Charlottesville Luxury Homes only.
Old photos and broken parts
Sierra stores headshots at 300×300 pixels, the team page had placeholder photos showing as broken images, and the team lead’s videos sat behind links that did nothing.
The key idea
One bio field, two different websites
We couldn’t give each site its own bio, so each bio now holds both versions. A short CSS block that exists only on Charlottesville Luxury Homes decides which one shows.
Sierra Agent BioOne field, shared by both sites
- New luxury design (hidden by default)
- Original bio
charlottesvilleluxury.homesHas the switch CSS, so it shows the new design
New design
towncville.comNo switch CSS, so it shows the original bio
Original
The solution
What we did
-
01
Team page as a shared widget
We built the new team page (an opening banner, three value boxes, a grid of 7 team cards and an office contact strip) as a Sierra Shared Widget, so the editor can’t strip the code.
-
02
Real photos and real titles
We replaced the placeholder images with each agent’s real headshot and used the titles from their own profiles instead of guesses.
-
03
Hid Sierra’s old blocks without deleting them
Sierra’s agent list, the “Language Spoken” filter and an old paragraph are hidden with CSS that applies to this page only. Nothing was removed from the CRM.
-
04
A new layout for every agent
Each profile has a large headshot, title, specialty tags, Call, Email and Text buttons, the agent’s bio, an “At a Glance” box, areas served and a closing call to action.
-
05
The one-site switch
Each bio carries the new design and the original bio. A CSS block in Charlottesville Luxury Homes’ head code shows the new design and hides the sidebar and duplicate header. towncville.com never sees it.
-
06
Kept every word of the longest profile
The team lead’s page was about 50,000 characters of stats, experience, areas of expertise, awards, testimonials and videos. All of it was kept and restyled, and the videos now play on the page.
-
07
Fixed Sierra’s video boxes
Sierra wraps every embedded video in its own 16:9 box, which left an empty block above each video. One CSS rule, limited to the new agent designs, fixed it.
-
08
Checked both sites, on phones too
We checked every agent on both websites and every page at 390 pixels wide, and listed every line of new text so the client could check it with each agent.
Screenshots
The new design, and the site that stayed the same
The result
What the client got
A design that fits a luxury brand, on the one website that needed it, without breaking anything on the other.
- A new team page and 7 redesigned agent profiles, live on Charlottesville Luxury Homes.
- towncville.com looks exactly as it did before, even though it shares the same agent bios.
- Nothing in Sierra was deleted, and the whole design can be switched off by removing one CSS block.
- The team lead’s profile went from a long text page with dead video links to a structured profile with working videos.
- Every page was checked on desktop and at phone width on both websites.
Services used
How we can help you
IDX & real estate websites
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Learn moreGoHighLevel setup & management
We set up, integrate and manage GoHighLevel for contractors: pipelines, missed-call text-back, follow-up workflows, review requests and website form integration.
Learn moreFAQ
Questions about this project
Can you customize a Sierra Interactive website?
Yes, within limits. Sierra doesn’t give you a theme, but you can add custom HTML and CSS through content areas, shared widgets, agent bios and the site-wide head code. We used all four on this project.
Can one CRM account show different designs on two websites?
Yes. Here, each agent bio holds two versions and a CSS block that exists on only one website decides which version shows. The other website keeps the original bio.
Will Sierra updates break the custom design?
The design doesn’t change any Sierra files. It lives in the content areas Sierra provides, and it can be switched off by removing one CSS block, so it’s easy to check and repair after an update.
Why did the agent photos stay at 300×300 pixels?
Sierra stores headshots at that size. The new design shows them as a sharp framed portrait instead of stretching them. Larger photos need higher-resolution uploads from the agents.
Do you work on other real estate platforms?
Yes. Besides WordPress, we customize CRM-based real estate websites. Send us your site and tell us what you’d like to change, and we’ll tell you what’s possible.
Stuck with a platform that won’t do what you need?
Send us your website and tell us what you want to change. We’ll tell you honestly what’s possible and what it would take.