Clueless and confused, looking for advice form the Pro's

[bertsmobile1]

It is all about what you like. Every brand offers pretty much the same engine, transmission options. Beyond that each brand has different features to help set them apart from the others and make them more appealing to the consumer. Go to your local dealers and kick the tires on every brand you can find and pick the one you like best. There are many on here that have a great deal of knowledge, but any advice you receive on which brand to buy will be an opinion based on what the advice giver likes best. In the end you are choosing something that you will have to be happy with. You should be fine no matter what brand you choose. Just take care of your mower and you should get many years of service.

Anything 1 acre or under I like small decks.
The old 8Hp30" decks were designed exactly for this type of yard.
So any of the more modern units that go around 10 to 15 Hp with a 30" to 36" deck will power through your yard.
Do not feel scared to go for a used machine for $ 500 to $ 1000 you can get a lot of very good mower, just check out the decks for rust thoroughly.
Avoid intek single if you can some have a big problem with head gaskets.

Check the ground speed of anything you buy because a big deck on a mower that crawls along might do a nice cut but it will seem like it takes forever and most smaller mowers will cut closer to the edge of the deck than the bigger ones.

The older the tractor the better they were built.
I have a lot of customers with mowers that are 20+ years old and still going strong yet a lot of 5 year old mowers are ready for the Sims bin.
Particularly the pressed decks the old ones are a lot thicker than the newer ones.
I am a big fan of the 2000 series Cub Cadets however a lot of the parts for these are being discontinued.
Mowers with a horizontal cranks were built to a much higher build quality than anything with a vertcal crank.

 

[gfp55]

bertsmobile1 has given you some very good advice.