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

Hope everyone is doing well! Great wealth of knowledge you all have here. I've read a ton of posts and gained alot of insight, but haven't found one that addresses my specific questions/issues/concerns/confusion. I currently mow roughly 1 acre with some hills and trees, nothing crazy, with a 21inch self propelled troy built, which has worked OK but as you can imagine takes forever, bogs down in any grass over 3 inches, and makes me feel less manly. Anyway, I'm in the market for a new mower, but can't decide which way to go. I'm a firefighter, and as I'm sure you all are aware, a ton of guys I work with mow on the side, so they're all telling me to bite the bullet and buy a commercial walk behind (think Exmark Metro or something similar) in a 36" to 48" cut at around 3700. Now, my wife has an issue spending that kind of money because "why would you pay 3700 for something you still have to walk behind". So I started looking at lawn tractors, and found some Aeriens at home depot with some good reviews.....but it's still a residential tractor that will die in what, 3-5 years? So, expensive walk behind is out, cheap tractor is out, so next, on to the "prosumer" mowers like the toro time cutter and the like, in the $2500 range. I like the idea of those, but then I get nervous that they simply won't last and I'll be back here in four mowing seasons asking for advice on where to blow another $2500 bucks. So, if you were me, expecting your first kid in July and wanting to spend more time with him and less time mowing, but trying to do it on a firefighters budget, what would you do? I'm sure many of you will say used, and I'm not opposed, the only issue is that I would have roughly $1500 cash, and finance whatever is left, so I'm not sure how far $1500 will go in the used market, not to mention, I'm not REALLY sure I know what to look for in a used mower.



Thanks for the help in advance and sorry for rambling on. Making these big ticket purchases, specifically before bringing a tiny human into the world is nerve racking, so I figured I'd better get some honest advice.

Be blessed! Justin