Working Deals Through the Dream Finders Sales Pipeline

Step 1

Open your deals and pick the pipeline

Go to More → CRM → Deals, or CRM → Deals if More is not shown in your navigation. Every object has a table view, and objects that use pipelines also have a board view where each deal is a card.

To see the board, open a saved-view tab such as All deals, click the board view icon, then use the pipeline dropdown to choose the pipeline you want to work. Dream Finders Homes works out of its Sales Pipeline — if you are offered more than one, confirm with your manager which one a deal belongs in.

A board can be grouped by properties other than stage, so do not assume each column is a pipeline stage. Check the grouping and the selected pipeline before you read anything into a column.

Step 2

Read the board before you change anything

Each card shows the deal properties and associations the account has chosen to display — these are configurable, so what you see depends on Dream Finders' setup. Hover over a card's activity section to see previous and upcoming activity, or choose View all activity for the full record.

In table view the columns are configurable too. If a number you rely on is missing, add the column rather than working from memory.

Step 3

Confirm the pipeline and the stage

Two properties answer the two questions you always need: Pipeline says which pipeline the deal sits in and therefore which stages it can move through, and Deal stage says where it is right now. Both are standard deal properties. If they are not shown in the left sidebar, open Actions → View all properties.

Multiple pipelines mean genuinely different processes with different stages — not automatically different communities or different teams. HubSpot recommends separate pipelines only where the process really has unique stages, so most Dream Finders deals should sit in one shared pipeline.

Creating a custom pipeline needs Starter, Professional or Enterprise, and free tools offer only the default — so a new pipeline is an administrator's decision, not a rep's workaround.

Pipeline decides the stages available. Deal stage says where this buyer is today.

Step 4

Move a deal to the next stage

On the board, drag the deal card into the next stage. That is a real stage change on the record, not a note that something happened, so only do it when the buyer has actually moved forward.

Alternatively, open the deal by clicking its name and change Deal stage from the record: hover over the property in the left sidebar, click the edit icon and set the value. Use the same edit route for any other property shown there.

Expect limits in some accounts. Configured pipeline rules can stop stage skipping or backward movement, and conditional stage logic can demand information before a move is allowed. If a move is refused, that is the account's configuration — ask your CRM administrator rather than jumping to a later stage.

Step 5

Complete what a closing stage asks for

A default pipeline includes a Closed won stage (100% probability, marked Won) and a Closed lost stage (0% probability, marked Lost). Moving into one sets Deal probability to 100% or 0% accordingly. Dream Finders' own stage names may differ — use the stages actually in the portal.

Close date is the date the deal is expected to close, or did close. By default, moving into a won or lost stage sets it to today's date — including a move from won to lost or back — and moving between two won stages or two lost stages does not reset it. Reopening a deal does not clear it unless that separate setting is enabled. This automation can be turned off, so check the value rather than assuming.

Amount is the deal's total value in its currency, and Closed lost reason and Closed won reason explain why it went the way it did. HubSpot does not universally force these at closure; administrators configure which fields a stage requires. So the rule is simple: complete any required fields shown for the stage before you move the deal.

Step 6

Create a deal from the buyer's record

When a contact becomes a real opportunity, open More → CRM → Contacts, click the contact's name, and in the right sidebar's Deals association card choose +Add then Create new. Fill in the deal's properties and click Create. The same route exists from a company's Deals card.

To put an existing buyer on a deal, open the deal and use its Contacts association card: choose +Add, search for the record and tick the checkbox. Associations are two-way, so the deal appears on the contact and the contact appears on the deal. One deal can be associated with several contacts and a company at once — useful when both partners are buying.

Managing associations needs the Edit associations permission or Super Admin access, and custom association labels need Professional or Enterprise. If the Deals card is missing from a record, that may be the configured layout rather than a fault.

Step 7

Keep the deal current after every meaningful conversation

On the deal record, the left sidebar's activity icons cover the everyday actions: note, email, call, task and meeting. The Activities tab shows the timeline, including pipeline stage changes, so the story of the deal is readable by whoever picks it up next.

From the board you can do the same without opening the deal: use the note and task icons on the card. Those controls only appear when the card's quick actions and activity settings are switched on.

Updating properties, logging the conversation and scheduling the next task after each real interaction is an Dream Finders working practice rather than a HubSpot rule — but it is the habit that keeps your pipeline honest.

Step 8

Know what your access allows

Deals permissions decide your reach: View controls which deals you can see, Edit which you can change, Create whether you can add one. Your access can be limited to your own records, your team's records, and optionally unassigned ones — which is why a colleague's deal may simply not appear for you.

A seat is different from a permission. A View-Only seat lets someone look without making changes, so it is not a working rep seat for advancing deals.

Two things are administrator work, not rep work: changing pipeline definitions and conditional stage properties needs the Edit property settings permission, and configuring pipeline rules needs Super Admin. Ask for those changes instead of working around them.