Amoura Carter - Three Tips for First-Time Home Buyers

Amoura Carter recently bought her first home in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she moved to eventually become a language arts teacher at Ashley Park K-8. Soon to start a new position at Garinger High School, she loves her new home and she has already begun to decorate it and fix it up. She learned many things about buying a home for the first time when she purchased her house in Charlotte, and she hopes she can share a few of her lessons here for others:

                                          

• Evaluate all assets and liabilities. Most first-time home buyers, like Amoura Carter, will have to secure a mortgage for their home. This means that you will likely have to make regular monthly payments on your mortgage over a long period of time. In order to ensure that you can make these monthly payments, you have to gain a firm understanding of how you are spending your money to make sure you have enough left over every month to make your payments.
• Keep income and tax documents organized. First-time home buyers like Amoura Carter usually have to get mortgages, and in order to apply for a mortgage, you have to document your income and taxes owed. Get your pay stubs, W-2s, tax returns, and bank statements in order before you apply.
• Know where you’re going to get a down payment from before you apply. There are assistance loans that are forgivable after five years out there for down payments on houses. Every state has different programs for home buying assistance. Check in with yours to figure out your options for down payment financing. 

Amoura Carter is proud to own a home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Amoura Carter - Read Like a Writer

Amoura Carter has always shown a talent for writing from a young age. When she enrolled in Davidson College, she decided to major in English, a decision that has taken her to places like China, put her words in front of many readers of online publications like Ebony.com, and given her the skills to work as a language arts teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. Carter loves to write her own work and teach children how to put their own thoughts on the page. She is also a voracious reader and she is always learning something new about storytelling and the craft of writing every time she picks up a book.
Amoura Carter pays attention to more things in a written story than most readers. As a writer herself, she picks up on the moves and decisions that the authors she reads make in order to enrich her own writing and create more ways to teach her students the finer points of getting their stories on the page. Amoura Carter is looking for things like symbolism, plotting, characterization, descriptions of the setting and what they mean in the context of all of the characters and actions in a story, no matter the length.

Amoura Carter has always loved to read books and stories ever since she was a small girl. She likes to be transported to another realm when she picks up a book. She has learned many times that good stories and storytelling should be like a dream for the reader that find themselves in.