I do try to stay out of this type of post as our price structure down here is way differnt to yours.
For the money you are spending you will not get much of a ride on if buying new.
It will be frail & flimsy and if given carefull maintanance and careful use might give you good service .
That sort of money will buy a good self propelled but not much of a ride on.
OTOH you should be able to get a reasonable used rear engine rider.
Avoid anything named Stiga or Castle Garden or for that matter any name that you can not find in the yellow pages.
when you find something then post the make. model number of both the mower & engine and thoe here will advise of the pros & cons of that perticular mower.
Google "Product reviews ( mower make & model) " and you will get a rough idea of what owners think of them.
The down side of that is it will be mostly negative as people are more likely to vent their spleins over the lemmon they bought than sing the praises of their mower that just does the job without fuss.