Slice of Paradise: Olive and Josh settle in to their first home in Palmerston North

Parents of two, Josh and Olive, were looking for their first home in the Palmerston North area, when they signed on to Three's Slice of Paradise, an eight-episode series which follows the property journeys of Kiwi house hunters, hosted by Shelley Ferguson and Peter Wolfkamp. Josh and Olive had a budget of $300,000 and were thrilled to purchase a home in Westbrook under their budget, for $280,000.

Olive says it was "eye-opening" to see how competitive the market was. Every property they visited had a number of other people there, also keen to buy, and several that they liked ended up selling before they had a chance to put an offer in.

Despite the challenges, Olive says the best part of their time on the show was having the opportunity to take their time and look around at different properties. "That was probably the most enjoyable part for me, just getting out there and even having the opportunity to be looking and knowing that it was a possibility. We were looking knowing it was eventually going to become a home."

Things got tougher once they did find a property they liked. Olive says when their offer was accepted, pressure quickly picked up. "Once an offer was accepted, I found it quite challenging - the timeframe that we had to have things completed by. I'm someone who gets quite overwhelmed with things so I found that quite stressful. But we had a mortgage broker... and I highly recommend those doing it for the first time to have some sort of support system like that, where they can guide you along and set timeframes for things to be done."

Since Slice of Paradise filmed, the family have moved in to their new home. They're now starting some basic renovations to their tastes and to add some value to the property. "The whole entire house is wallpapered so I've started ripping wallpaper off, just because I hate wallpaper! But other than that we're just kind of settling in still," Olive said. "There's room for improvement and that's good because if we do want to sell... We're just looking to add value as best we can and just enjoy it."

Thinking back on their time on the property show, Olive says it's easy to get overwhelmed and warns people not to "freak out". "Take your time, but be realistic. I think when we first started out we had a list of all the things we 'must have'. With the house we did buy in the end, a lot of those things went away because it's our first home, and what do we realistically need?"

Josh and Olive, as well as their two children, have now settled in to their new home and are planning to spend at least the next five years there.

Watch Slice Of Paradise on Three every Wednesday at 7:30pm.