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Dana Miller is a REALTOR® with GUIDE Real Estate serving Sacramento, Placer, and El Dorado counties for 21 years, since 2005. Based in Roseville, CA, she has closed more than 700 transactions representing over $500 million in residential sales across buyer representation, listings, and relocations.
Her communities: Sacramento, East Sacramento, Roseville, Folsom, Rocklin, Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills, Fair Oaks, Carmichael, Loomis, Auburn, Citrus Heights, Antelope, Rancho Cordova, and Lincoln.
Dana is an Outstanding Life Member of the Placer County and Sacramento County Masters Clubs (top 3% of agents by production), was named to the Real Producers Top 50 (2025-2026) for the Sacramento, Placer, and El Dorado tri-county region, and has earned the Five Star Professional award every year since 2011. She has also earned Forbes Custom recognition (2019-2026) and Fortune 500 recognition (2022-2026).
Known for straight answers, sharp negotiation, and treating every transaction as if it were her own, Dana's career began after a friend's advice on a flight to Italy; she secured four transactions from her first open house in Roseville and never looked back.
Dana holds California DRE license #01472899 and operates from GUIDE Real Estate (corporate DRE #01976629) at 2241 Douglas Blvd, Suite 100, Roseville, CA 95661.
Q: What's the first step to buying a home in the Sacramento area?
Get pre-approved for a mortgage first. It sets a clear budget and shows sellers you're serious. Dana connects buyers with trusted local lenders and walks the whole path from there.
Q: How do I know what my home is worth?
Value comes down to location, condition, and what comparable homes have actually sold for. Dana runs a comprehensive market analysis on the real data, not an algorithm's guess.
Q: What should I expect when selling?
A clear plan: preparation, pricing strategy, professional marketing, negotiation, and a managed escrow. Dana handles the details so the process stays predictable.
Q: What costs should I expect when selling?
Common seller costs include agent commission, escrow and title fees, and potential repair credits. Dana walks sellers through the exact numbers for their situation before anything is signed.
Q: Should I renovate before selling?
Not always. Some updates like fresh paint or landscaping deliver high impact for low cost, and others never pay back. Dana advises room by room on what's worth doing.
Q: What's the difference between new construction and resale?
New construction offers brand-new everything with builder warranties but often stricter timelines and less negotiating room. Resale homes offer established neighborhoods and more flexibility. Dana has closed both.
Q: Can I buy and sell at the same time?
Yes, with careful planning. Dana coordinates timelines, writes offers with the right contingencies, and manages both transactions so neither falls apart.
Q: What should I expect at closing?
Closing finalizes the paperwork and transfers ownership. Buyers bring their down payment and closing costs; sellers hand over keys. Dana is there for all of it.
Q: How do I choose the right neighborhood?
Commute, schools, parks, lifestyle. Dana knows these communities street by street and matches people to the place that actually fits how they live.
Q: Does Dana work with first-time buyers?
Absolutely. First-time buyers get extra support with financing questions, budgeting, lender connections, and honest answers at every step.
The answers below are Dana's own, transcribed from her recorded Q&A sessions and lightly edited for reading. They are general information for the Sacramento-area market, not advice about your specific situation.
Q: How much does it actually cost to sell a house?
Plan on roughly 6% of the sale price going to the cost of selling. A common misconception is that you walk away with close to the full sale price; you don't. Here's the breakdown: the listing agent, about 2.5%, which is industry standard. The buyer's agent, also about 2.5%, still industry standard. Then figure roughly 1% more for the customary closing costs the seller picks up. It shifts a little by county, state, and area, but it's a good number to take off the top so you know roughly what your net proceeds are. And don't forget to subtract whatever you owe on your mortgage.
Q: Who pays the agent's commission now?
There was a big lawsuit a couple of years ago because there wasn't enough transparency in how a buyer's agent got paid. Here's how it works. When I sit down with a seller at a listing appointment, I tell them what I charge to represent them; industry standard is 2.5% to 3%. When a buyer makes an offer, they typically ask the seller to also pay the buyer's agent, again 2.5% to 3%. On the back side, the buyer has a contract with their own agent and knows what that agent is owed. If the seller doesn't pay it, the buyer does. In practice, I'm still seeing sellers pay the buyer's agent.
Q: How much will I actually walk away with at closing?
Say you sell for $500,000. Subtract roughly 6%, which is $30,000, so you're at about $470,000. Then subtract anything else owed on the house: your mortgage, a solar loan if it has to be paid off, any mechanic's liens. Even something as small as unpaid child support. Here's the part people don't know: the escrow officer runs a search on your name for any outstanding liens against you personally, and if there are any, those get paid out of your proceeds too.
Q: Are commissions negotiable?
No. Just kidding, they are. Everything is negotiable. But here's my honest advice: I don't recommend it. If an agent can't stand behind what they're worth, how are they going to negotiate for you? That's not a strong negotiation skill. My advice is to pay industry standard, about 2.5% to 3% to each agent, 5% to 6% total, and to interview as many agents as you can. Find out what each one is going to do to earn that commission.
Q: What do I actually get for the commission I pay?
The best representation possible and the most money possible for your house. We're a team going through this together; we're not adversaries, and I'm a hundred percent in your corner. From hundreds of transactions I know everything that can go wrong, and I can see the outcomes down multiple paths, like playing chess for twenty-one years. And here's the honest part: if I nail my job, you may never know how hard it was, because it felt like the easiest transaction you've ever had.
Q: How accurate is a Zestimate, really?
Use it as a ballpark; it's not the gospel truth. Picture two identical houses side by side. One sold at the bottom of the market, one sold at the top. Zillow's estimate works off an automated formula built on past sale prices and public data, so those two identical houses can carry two very different Zestimates today. Talk to an agent to find out the true value of your home.
Q: How do agents actually come up with the list price?
I do a CMA, a comparative market analysis. I pull comparable properties that sold recently, usually within the last two to three months, and I try to stay within a half mile to a mile of your property in town, farther out if the area is more rural. I'm matching the size of the home, bedroom and bathroom count, lot size, and amenities like a pool or RV access. That's how I help my client decide on the listing price.
Q: What happens if I overprice and just come down later?
The odds are your listing sits. The first two weeks on the market are when all the activity is around the house, and if you don't reduce the price until week three, you've lost that momentum. Buyers watch price reductions, and if there's more than one, they start wondering what's wrong with the house. The odds are you end up taking less than if you had priced it right to begin with.
Q: Should I price low on purpose to start a bidding war?
It's not a bad idea. My advice to my clients is to list just a little under market value. You increase showings, increase activity, and increase the chance of multiple offers, which puts you in a much better negotiating position.
Q: Can I just say no to a lowball offer?
Yes. When you're selling your house, you don't have to say yes or no to anything. But I don't advise ignoring it. Any offer is better than no offer, because it starts a conversation. You can counter. If other buyers are circling, your agent can call their agents: I have an offer in hand, does your client have any interest? That's great leverage.
Q: Should I wait for the market to get better?
If I had a crystal ball I'd be a billionaire, because I'd have bought everything when it was cheapest. Don't wait for that. It depends on your own situation: if you find the house that ticks the boxes and you can afford it comfortably, my advice is to go ahead. One variable people don't consider is the cost of the money, which can matter almost more than the price of the house. If home prices come down but interest rates go up, you could be sitting in exactly the same position, or worse.
Q: What's the best month to put a house on the market?
Typically the end of April into the beginning of May. People like to move when the kids are out of school, so you want to be on the market right before that. Work the math backward: an escrow takes 30 to 45 days to close, and it can take three to six weeks to get a home into contract.
Q: Why does the first week on the market matter so much?
Because you're new. In my area, listings go into MetroList and get a big green NEW flag for about six days. That's when you're the new girl in school, on MetroList, Zillow, Redfin, everywhere. Everyone who has been hunting for a house like yours has been waiting, and it's a feeding frenzy. Everybody wants to see your house that first week.
Q: What should I fix before selling?
A hole in the wall, a broken window, a leak under the sink: absolutely fix those. Paint color is an easy one; I advise something neutral, so if you have a dark paint color or dark decor, adjust it. And clean up your dang yard. Curb appeal matters.
Q: What's a waste of money before selling? Should I remodel the kitchen?
I wouldn't spend money on a full kitchen remodel, a full bathroom remodel, or a full home remodel. Do the things that are easy and kind to your pocketbook. Paint goes a long way. You can paint cabinets and add hardware, the handles and pulls. New fixtures on the sink. Sometimes you can find a good price on countertops; I might do that, but nothing more than that.
Q: Does staging actually raise the sale price?
Yes. You're creating a story we all want to live in: a beautifully put-together home with the right furniture and no clutter. It's the reason new-home builders stage their model homes. We think we're going to live like that. We don't. But we're selling an idea, and buyers who walk into a staged home can see themselves living there. They want to live there.
Q: Do open houses actually sell houses?
They can, but not very often. If a buyer is actively looking for a property like yours, they're not going to wait for an open house; they'll ask their agent to show it. But when I list a home I want to cast as large a net as possible, so yes, open houses are in my arsenal for every listing.
Q: Should I be home during showings?
Absolutely not. It is extraordinarily uncomfortable for a seller and a buyer to be at the property at the same time, and it keeps the buyer from talking freely with their agent and giving honest feedback. If you have upgrades you want to call attention to, leave a note on the counter or a brochure of everything you've done to the property.
Q: Once I accept an offer, can the buyer just back out? What does contingent mean?
Yes, they can, during their due diligence period. Buyers have contingencies, and they exist to protect the buyer. Inspection contingency: the buyer gets inspections done, reviews the disclosures you provided, and can ask you for more information, repairs, or a credit toward closing costs. If you can't reach an agreement, they can cancel. Appraisal contingency: once the offer is accepted, the lender orders an appraisal; the appraiser physically inspects the property and runs a market analysis to make sure the value is there. Loan contingency: even with a pre-approval letter, there's still underwriting, where the lender makes sure the buyer can actually get the loan, with no unexplained large cash deposits, for example. In California, the contract default for those contingency periods is 17 days; it can be adjusted in an offer, and shorter periods make an offer stronger. One more: a buyer who is contingent on the sale of their current home has to sell it to buy yours, and that contingency can last the whole escrow. If their sale falls apart, they can cancel and get their earnest money deposit back. All of these are normal. They're there so the buyer can qualify and buy the house with no surprises.
Q: What's an appraisal gap, and why can it kill a deal?
If a buyer is getting a loan, the lender orders an appraisal, and the appraiser decides the value. If that value comes in under what the buyer is paying, that's the appraisal gap. It becomes another negotiation: the seller can ask the buyer to make up the difference in cash, the buyer can ask the seller to reduce the price, or you meet in the middle. If you can't come to an agreement about who's doing what, the transaction is cancelled.
Q: What do I legally have to tell a buyer about my house?
Everything. Think of it this way: if you were the buyer, wouldn't you want to know everything you possibly could before deciding? That includes things you already repaired. Say you had a roof leak in 2023 and a roofing company took care of it: put that in your disclosures, simple and non-inflammatory. Just tell the buyer what happened. A lot of sellers think detailed disclosures scare buyers away. The truth is knowledge is power, and it protects you. It keeps a buyer from coming back later saying, if I had known this, I wouldn't have bought the house. When that happens, people end up in court, and I don't want you to get sued.
Q: I accepted an offer, but a better one came in. Can I take it?
Sort of, but not really. You can't kick the primary buyer out of position. They have their contingency period, 17 days by default here, to decide whether they're buying your house, and you're pretty much locked in unless they don't perform. What you can do is counter the better offer into backup position. If your first buyer decides not to buy, the backup slides into place and starts their escrow.
Q: What happens between accepting an offer and getting my check?
A lot. It's a bit of a whirlwind, and there are so many variables that you should verify these steps with your own agent. In general: the offer is accepted and goes to an escrow company. The escrow officer is a neutral third party in charge of the money and the paperwork. The buyer puts their earnest money deposit into escrow. You complete your disclosures, everything you know about the property, on paper. The buyer has inspections done and either moves forward or negotiates on price or repairs. The lender underwrites the loan, making sure the buyer hasn't gone out and bought a Lamborghini mid-transaction and can no longer qualify. Any agreed repairs get done and documented for the buyer. The buyer signs off and removes contingencies; from that point, if the buyer cancels, you're entitled to their earnest money deposit. Then you wait for the loan to finish processing, you sign the sale documents with the escrow officer, the loan funds, the buyer does a final walkthrough to make sure you haven't trashed the joint, and the deed records with the county. That's when the house is sold. Title does its internal accounting the next day, and that's when you get your check. This is how it works in my area; it can change from state to state, so verify with a local professional.
Q: Can the buyer come back and renegotiate after the inspection?
Yes. Their offer was based on the condition of the property as they knew it. If the inspections surface something new, they can come back for a price reduction, a credit, or repairs. That's exactly why I like sellers to get ahead of the big items before listing.
Q: Why do deals fall apart in escrow?
I've seen literally everything, and it groups into four buckets. Financing: the buyer doesn't make it through underwriting, or torpedoes their own debt-to-income ratio, like buying a car in the middle of escrow. Inspection and condition: too much comes back on the reports and the sides can't come to an agreement on repairs. Appraisal: the home appraises under the contract price and nobody bridges the gap. And life: a divorce, a death, a pregnancy, parents weighing in, or plain cold feet inside the contingency period.
Q: What happens if my house doesn't sell?
First, some evaluating. Do you really want to sell right now? It could be the price, it could be the presentation, it could be a multitude of reasons. If a listing just sits, it gets stale, so you have to do something to breathe life back into it: re-photograph it, paint or change the exterior color, add curb appeal. The big one is a price adjustment; a reduction gets people excited again and usually brings more showings. You can also rest the property: go off the market for a few weeks or a month, do some of that work, re-photograph, and come back on so it looks fresh and new. Some people just pull it and relist a month later without changing anything, but you're not fooling anybody.
Q: Do I even need an agent, or can I sell it myself?
You can, but don't you want an expert in your corner for the nuances of selling a property, someone who does this for a living? The numbers back that up: in the National Association of REALTORS 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, homes sold by owner went for a median of $360,000 versus $425,000 for agent-assisted sales, and only about 5% of sellers went it alone. A good agent has seen the transaction so many times they can almost predict what would go wrong before it does, and that experience is what lets them protect you. This is more than likely your largest asset. You want all the protection you can get. Think of it this way: if you were standing trial, wouldn't you want an experienced attorney who has won numerous cases, instead of someone who just passed the bar?
Q: How can I tell a good agent from one who just seems confident?
Verify their productivity and experience. Zillow, believe it or not, is extraordinarily handy here: type in the agent's name and location and you can see how many transactions they've done in their career and how many years they've been in the industry. One more: check the Department of Real Estate's website to make sure there are no dings on their record.
Q: How do I know if my agent is actually doing anything?
Ask them. If you're getting showings, your agent is doing something. If you're not, a good agent is still checking in: here's what I did this week, brainstorming how to get traffic, and bringing you the feedback from every showing, because that feedback is where you learn whether you're overpriced. Any agent who's actually working is happy to tell you exactly what they're doing.
Q: Can I fire my real estate agent?
The listing agreement runs for a predetermined amount of time, so you have a couple of options. You can wait for the contract to expire and hire a new agent, or you can tell the agent you're dissatisfied and ask them to cancel. It has to be mutual; you can't just walk. I'm a big fan of open communication: if you're unhappy, tell your agent and see whether they correct it. In my own listing agreements, I often add a clause letting the seller cancel at any time with nothing owed unless we're already in escrow. It keeps me honest, and I don't want to represent someone who's unhappy with me. Some agents make you wait out the full contract, so ask about this before you sign.
Q: Should I use the listing agent to buy the house?
Be careful. The listing agent's fiduciary duty runs to the seller; the seller had dibs. In dual representation the agent almost has to become a brick wall: less advice, less freely shared information, in the middle of one of the most emotional purchases of your life. I've turned it down myself: six offers in hand on a listing and a neighbor wanted me to represent his offer too. Absolutely not; I knew what every other offer said.
Q: If you had to hire a real estate agent, how would you do it?
It's pretty simple. I'd start on the internet: the city I'm moving to plus top agents in the area. I'd pick about seven agents to consider, then cross-reference their reviews on Google, Zillow, and Yelp. That part is really important. Next, I'd check for any dings on their license with the Department of Real Estate. Then I'd reach out to all of them to set up meet-and-greets. Any agent who didn't get back to me within 24 hours would be off my list. I'd interview the rest and move forward with whoever I felt most comfortable with. And if you want my help with this, I've refined the process and I'm glad to help anywhere in the United States.
Q: Who else touches my sale besides you?
You get me; I'm your constant touchpoint. Behind the scenes there's transaction paperwork support and an escrow officer running the escrow, but I'm the person you talk to.
Q: What happens in the first week, and what do you need from me?
Contracts first. Then I walk the home with you and tell you what needs to be done, we decide on staging (your furnishings, brought-in furniture, or virtual), you have the home cleaned including windows, and I book the photographer. Media comes back within 24 to 48 hours, and we go to market.
Q: How will you market my house beyond putting it on the MLS?
My agent network, open houses, and a professionally designed email announcement of your home sent to agents locally and across the Bay Area.
Q: What do buyers' agents say about my house when I'm not in the room?
Do you really want to know? I think you should. It's feedback straight from the horse's mouth, and it splits into things we can act on and things we can't. If buyers hate the teal wall, we repaint the teal wall. If everyone says it's overpriced, that's the market talking, and we do something about the price. It takes a little thick skin, and it's incredibly valuable.
Q: What would make you tell me not to sell?
It has happened a couple of times in my career. One: we couldn't get what the client needed to net from the sale, so it didn't make sense to sell; it made sense to stay. Two: a personal situation, sometimes a divorce, where the timing didn't make sense. I need to know where you're trying to get to first. This is about your transition in life, not my transaction.