One thing I will tell you is don't necessarily buy low end. I waited and purchased a nicer for my first and now that I love it so I am glad I didn't start of with the lower models. I chose brother for my familiarity with the brand and its ease of use right out of the box, really I didn't even need lessons and my machine was the 2nd from the TOL, thats how easy it is. I have always been a brother girl, and owned brother or brother made babylock machines. Some brands are more user friendly so I would keep that in mind as well. I love my large color screen, position feature making hooping for a newbie super easy, I would say hoopsize is a preference while I am able to use a 7x12 I have hardly used it compared to my 5x7 and 4x4 but also would like an 8x8. I do think getting a good software is also important for editing even though I have onboard features I find it easier and software has more fine tuning editing features, especially when it comes to lettering. My advice for software is demo before purchase. There are lots of machines on the market so it can be overwhelming, but I chose my machine mostly for its sewing features. I would write a list of features you feel you must have like screen size/clarity, cutting of jump stitches, onboard editing features you wold like, a budget and try several models, and note which seem more comfortable. For software I would make sure there is an ability to adjust density, and remove overlap because even though my machine has onboard editing I find with resizing I was having a problem with density and overlap which is why I recommend a good software. I have 2, one I hardly use made by the same brand as my machine, and babylock embroideryworks which I purchased later because of my softwares poor editing feature. Embrilliance essentials is the same as embroidery works but you can add features as you go instead of paying all at once, however, the babylock version came with super helpful online classes that really helped me learn it features You can't demo embrilliance but you can demo embroideryworks if you want to know how it works