Sean and Terri Smith found their Bermuda cottage through a stroke of good fortune.

In late 1999, the year before they got married, Mr. Smith's family construction firm, Ross Smith Construction, was doing a job on Spice Hill.

One of the labourers just happened to get talking to the owner of the next-door property. It turned out that the neighbour was looking to sell his three-bedroom cottage.

At that stage, Mr. Smith and his then girlfriend, now wife, were living just down the road in a rental apartment. "We were in a one-bedroom apartment with our baby girl, trying to live on one wage." For three years they had been saving as much money as they could, driven by the ambition to one day own their own home. It wasn't easy, said Mr. Smith.

"Saving money is tough, but it's worth it. It's hard to sacrifice four or five trips a year, the new car, the jet ski... But some things are more important, some things last longer."

When the opportunity to purchase the property presented itself, Mr. Smith asked the owner not to advertise. "Luckily he agreed, so we didn't get into a bidding war with someone else."

The couple had enough saved for their deposit and took out a mortgage to purchase the house. There was a lot of renovation needing to be done. Most of the floors had to be replaced and they redid the entire kitchen, cabinets and countertops. Fortunately, as a contractor, Mr. Smith was able to do much of the work himself.

"Not the electrics - my brother's an electrician so that kind of helped me out," he said, smiling.

Mr. Smith remarked that friends and family are often willing to help out when it comes to helping you to buy a house. He was only 31 when he got his Piece of the Rock and said that people were particularly keen to assist a young family.

Mr. Smith said that he thinks that the recent trend to get 95 percent mortgages are good because they give people an opportunity. But his personal preference was to save as much money as he could. "The more money you have up front, the better. I don't blame people for taking a 95 percent mortgage, but some people don't realise what they're getting themselves into."

His advice for people trying to find a property is that they should not be afraid to buy something that needs work. You'd be surprised how much money you can save by buying something that isn't perfect and doing it up." Of course, being in the construction industry puts him in the ideal situation, admitted Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith said that one day he'd like to build his own house from scratch. But, for the time being, with two young children, Johari and Jorel, it's just good to know they have their foot on the ladder.