Instrument 41,
Take a look at Yanmar's. I picked up a nice four-wheel drive with bush hog and tiller for $5K. I just finished moving 46 cubic yard of topsoil with this (the tractor and a dirt scoop). Many John Deere's are, in fact, Yanmar's. Go Diesel, the power is amazing. My Yanmar uses about 3/4 gallon of fuel an hour - these are amazing machines. tractorbynet.com has a forum strictly for Yanmar... well, they have a forum for most brands - that would be a great place to start.
Take a look at Tullahoma tractor to get a ballpark price to compare to your area.
http://www.tullahomatractor.com/inventory.html