Buying advice for a new mower

Hi everyone, we are buying a new house. Its now time for me to upgrade my push mower :). I't has about a 1/2 acre of land with many obstacles. Its on the flat side except for a small section in the front yard which slopes downwards. So i'm thinking on buying a low end (residential) z-turn type mower. I'm looking for 2-3k price range. Locally i pretty much have lowes. I have a Home Depot about 45 minutes away that will deliver for free too. I prefer to buy from lowes just in case there are issues since my store is local but willing to maybe buy from Home Depot. I'm guessing for the amount of property i have a 42-in deck will be fine. I've been looking at the toro mustangs @ lowes. For the 2-3k residential mower are most of the build almost the same? I know many of the brands are all owned my MTD. On the low end does engine choice make that much difference? The mustangs @ lowes all have briggs or kohler engines. If i want a Kawasaki @ lowes i'll have to go with the Hustler Raptor (which i've never heard of before). Now if i'm willing to go to Home Depot they do have the timecutter series that have kawaski engines but then again if i have issues i'm going to get better service locally. Anything other than engine choice i should look at in the price range i'm looking at?



I'm not trying to be rude but please don't anyone reply and say i need a commercial 5-8k mower because i don't and i can't afford that much for a mower. To be honest with you i don't trust buying a used commercial mower when you don't know anything about it. For someone who has a lawn mowing buisness thats a pretty good idea but i don't and don't ever plan to.



Anyways, i probably wont' be buying until spring but i'm doing my research early.



thanks....