My husband wants to upgrade our Husqvarna riding lawn mower to a zero-turn riding lawn mower. We are on 6 acres with about 2-3 acres needing mowed every week and a half. He currently spends about 5 hours with me helping some to get our lawn mowed. Often, he is using his only days off to mow.

We are looking in about the $3,000 range. He is hoping to maybe get a mower from Lowes/Home Depot with a 10% off coupon. Unfortunately there is such a huge price jump to a commercial mower, which is what we really need.

Our options are as follows:

1)Hold off a few years until we can get a commercial unit.

2) Buy a new unit-he is looking at a Cub Cadet RZT 50 inch deck and a Toro SS5000 50 inch deck. Both are priced at 2999

3) Buy a used higher-end residential from Craigslist and probably upgrade in 1-2 years. Currently there is a Husqvarna RZ2454 that was $4000, but marked down to $3,000 when the current owner bought it.

4)He looked at a BadBoy MZ Mower for $3500, but determined that was a bit much for something not big enough to do the job long term.

I have had a somewhat hard time finding many reviews, but did find this previous link:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tractor/msg041814338997.html

about a Cub Cadet, with the main dislike being that it is bouncy. DH is 6'1, so I am not sure he would enjoy this. I think the Husqvarna riding mower we have now has a nice ride, but it takes too long to mow this place.

I am hoping that whatever we do, it either: last or we don't loose a bunch of money reselling in 1-2 years.