Here is the reader's digest summary of my year of personal research I did before I bought mine. Others can (and probably will) disagree, but whatever- My viewpoints are free, and worth every penny.
1) You are doing right by looking at used tractors that already include the implements you want. Implements are expensive, so when you can get the seller to throw them in, then that's a score. Don't worry about the clamp-on pallet forks- Like I said- you can find those brand new, all day for 200 bucks with free shipping
2) If you are buying used, then pass on any gasoline powered rigs- Jump straight to the later diesel-hydraulic designs.
3) Sizes: Like John says: Bigger is better, until it gets too big to fit where you need it to go. Mine is a tiny little 18hp subcompact (good for 2 acres or less)- I needed a 4-foot max width in order to fit through all the horse gates on our property, but it still has enough PTO juice to turn a 50 inch tow-behind tiller, and it could easily spin a 2-blade 56 inch brush cutter. The front loader on mine will lift about 500 pounds, and the rear 3-point can lift a trailer with a 1000 lb tongue weight. I use mine to move around the horse trailer, the car hauler, and my boat all the time. It's WAY faster and more maneuverable than having to hook up, and unhook from the truck
If you opt for a smaller rig as I did, then again- diesel/hydraulic drive is imperative, and so is 4wd.
4) Tractor brands- Forget it. Everyone has their favorite, and nobody agrees, but here goes mine: Kubotas offer the best long term value. Yes, better than John Deere. Need proof? Simply compare the number of old (30+ year) Kubotas out there for sale, with John Deeres of the same vintage. The 30+ year old John Deeres will all have been restored, and made into pseudo museum pieces, while the 30+ year old Kubotoas all look like death on a stick, but are still out in the fields doing work.
In more recent vintages (my Kubota is a 2016), Kubota still offers several advantages- The body panels are still all steel (most others have gone to plastic), Kubota still makes their own engines, pumps, and gear cases (On all their smaller models, Deere is now using Yanmar engines, pumps and gear cases, so you might as well just save the 30% markup for the Deere name and the green paint, and just buy a Yanmar)
Yanmars, BTW are also VERY robust tractors. again- go look at all the old ones for sale out there that are still chugging right along.
New Holland, Mahindra, and Kioti are all decent brands, but again, New Holland has a lot of plastic, and all three of these brands ship their tractors as complete assemblies (at least they did back when I was looking) so they have to come halfway around the world to get to the US, so you pay for more to cover the expensive shipping (again- Kubota has the superior US distribution channel- they crate and ship the components, which are then final-assembled into tractors, right here in the US)
Lastly- Learn about the gray market. Any used tractor being sold in the US (primarily old Kubotas and Yanmars) that has Japanese writing all over it, was probably illegally imported, and the OEM will not want to sell you parts for it (even though the parts might be easily available) - Kubota in particular plays HARDBALL in this game. You can save a lot on a gray market tractor, but you will wait longer for parts every time you need to repair it (since you will have to go through japanese parts suppliers)
And once you have your tractor, get your pallet forks for the front bucket, and then get yourself an 80 dollar Harbor Freight quick hitch for the 3 point- This thing makes dropping and swapping implements a snap:
https://go.harborfreight.com/coupons/20 ... -91165837/a lot of older craigslist box scrapers and implements may not be quick hitch compatible, but that makes them CHEAP, and anyone who knows how to use a welder and a cutoff wheel can figure out how to modify the brackets on an old implement to make it work with a quick hitch