Google beat up real estate sites for the same reason. City + homes for sale type sites where all that changed was the city, especially where the sites would create mini fact pages for each city to try and pull rank for that area keyword search.
Too many sites have used this technique and the market is saturated with such low quality sites. Niche directories focusing on one city are better, but you need to watch the boiler plate content and also the listings you have need to contribute more to the conversation that just name, address telephone like the yellow pages.
I doubt that Google is penalizing you for using the sale template, as mentioned so many sites use WordPress themes where the code structure is identical, and they are doing fine. I am curious if you are interlinking the websites.
Good content, usefulness and fresh contributions to the site will always be a good recipe. Fix and request re-inclusion and your shouldn't have a problem.