I'd agree that you should first try-out several brands at a large show--the headache and $$ it saves you down the road will be worth the cost of attending the show. You don't say where you live, but most of us don't live near a dealer--I have a Gammill and my dealer is at least 2 hours away & covers a territory about twice that space--most of us would acknowledge our dealers are not local. Many people work with dealers at a show and then the dealer will deliver your machine to you. The other thing to remember is that most of us don't take machines in for annual maintenance, so having connection to a dealer is important as you will want (and pay bigtime!) to have a tech come for major issues--but you will also (or need a friend or family) to do many of the "minor" repairs--it's worth a tech coming out and doing maintenance so you can learn what you need to do. Good luck--I love long arm quilting!