I won't need it for cutting grass because I already have a zero-turn mower. I want it for plotting flower and veggie beds, moving fallen trees ( some are lot of the mature trees are dying), re-grading gravel driveway, moving dirt to level out low area, too old to lift large items like I used to back in the day. Snow removal as well.
How heavy of things will you need/want to lift as a single unbroken item?
I ask as loader capacity can be one of those things that can drive the tractor size (part of how I ended up with a Kubota
L3560 on less than 3 acres) - and that capacity should be considered with respect to lift height and reach at that height. There's a whole lot of marketing tractors purely on loader lift capacity which isn't something that's always useful on it's own. For example: being able to lift 2000lbs, but not being able dump/load it into/onto the intended place doesn't do much good
A few other things to consider are:
1) time to perform a task vs. how much you time you have; this will drives implement sizing and in turn tractor sizing (for example: just because someone could mow a 5 acre field with a 22" push mower doesn't mean it's practical for everyone to do so)
2) budget - not just initial tractor purchase, but planned implements and other things that may not be as obvious (e.g. tools to perform regular maintenance or have it done).
3) any other hard limitations on size that may apply (e.g. overall height for parking it in an existing garage & overall width if you need to get through a gate).
4) other special considerations for your location; for example: hills/slopes, higher altitude operations (unlikely in MI, but...)
5) any special preferences on desired implements that may have special requirements (e.g. 3rd function on the loader for operating a grapple, or rear remotes for things like top & tilt kits, snow blowing vs. pushing where the type/volume of snow that usually needs to be removed at a single time may play a part)
...and if you really want to get into the weeds
6) look into the required maintenance intervals (sometimes a cheap tractor is cheap because it's going to require a lot of regular maintenance) - it may not make a huge difference with a small tractor, but with a larger tractor or larger the fluid capacities having to do something like an oil change every 400 hours vs every 200 hours can eat away a difference in upfront price pretty quickly (depending on how often the tractor is being used obviously).
While everyone here can help obviously spend your money, it's unlikely anyone here (other than you) will be making the payment or spending the time to do whatever work you want/need to do around your new place. So on that note it's probably worth taking any advice given with a grain (or bag) of salt.
BTW Currently DEF doesn't become an issue until the engine HP goes over 75HP, and anything under 25HP won't have any sort of emission system --- and opinions on emissions systems for tractors between 25HP and 75HP tend to vary by location, type, and how an operator runs their equipment.
Just my $0.02 though...
