I'm having so much problems for this basic thing in regards to dropdownlist I did so many methods described in stackoverflow and all didn't work I will sum the code like this. I just want to simple create a dropdownlist that is saved to the database.
Here is what I did DefaultModel
public class DefaultModel
  {
    public int Id {get; set;}
    //other things
    public CountryList SelectedCountry {get; set;}
  }
  public DefaultDbContext : DbContext
   {
      public DbSet<DefaultModel> DefaultModels {get; set;}
      public DbSet<CountrtyList> CountryLists {get; set;}
   }
CountryList Model
public class CountryList
  {
    public byte Id {get; set;}
    public string name {get; set;} //country name
    public DefaultModel DefaultModel {get; set;}
  }
ViewModel
 public class CountryListViewModel
 {
   public byte Id {get; set;}
   public List<CountryList> CountryList {get; set;}
DefaultController Not Home Controller
 private DefaultDbContext = db;
 public HomeController
 {
   db = new DefaultDbContext;
 }
 public ActionResult Index()
  {
        var countryLists= _context.CountryLists.ToList();
        var viewModel = new CountryListViewModel
        {
            Default = new DefaultModel(),
            CountryLists = countrylists
        };
        return View(viewModel);
  }
View
 @model Default.ViewModels.CountryListViewModel
 <div class="form-group">
 @Html.LabelFor(model => 
  model.TransactionModel.SelectedCountry.CountryLists
   , new { @class = "control-label col-md-2" })
    <div class="col-md-10">
   @Html.DropDownListFor(
   model =>    model.TransactionModel.SelectedCountry.CountryLists
   , new     SelectList(Model.CountryList, "Id, Name"), "Select Country")
    </div>
</div>
 <div class="form-group">
    <div class="col-md-offset-2 col-md-10">
        <input type="submit" value="Create" class="btn btn-default" />
    </div>
</div>
Migration adding Countries
 Sql("INSERT INTO COUNTRYLISTS (Id, Name) VALUES(1, UK)");
Error
System.NullReferenceException: 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.'
I'm just trying to learn how to create a dropdownlist in MVC5 from scratch and I wasted allot of hours & constantly failing at multiple attempts. I see tutorials that use ways that simply don't work I have no idea what is wrong or what I should do.