I'd figure a 100-hours/year or less is typical for people who use a compact to maintain property. More than that starts sounding like cash agriculture, commercial work or a rental.

It's difficult to generalize from hours to condition on tractors because they can be put so many different uses. A tractor that spent its hours doing finish mowing might be a bargain at twice the hours compared to one that spent it's hours doing heavy loader work. It's good to get a sense of the tractor's work from the previous owner.

I bought a 15-year old tractor and it had 485 hours on it. I don't think it should be too difficult to find something around there on the market. With my tractor, I'm not expecting any major repairs till around 1,500 when the clutch might start complaining. Figure injector and hydraulic pump work around 2,500 and engine work around 5,000 or more. Of course, these hours are assuming good maintenance. Poor maintenance can really take the life out of a tractor, so it's good to get a sense of how a tractor was cared for.

Even within these norms, there's always failure from abuse--intentional or otherwise. It's a good idea to figure a $1000 budget or so curing the 'dread previous owner' factor. Mine was a 4wd linkage that broke inside the cases. The operating lever had been broken off and welded back on so I should have suspected some abuse. With a used tractor there's likely always something.

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