I would buy my backhoe again in a heartbeat! There's always the "just rent an excavator, it's cheaper" comments on these "Should I buy a backhoe" threads. I thought about it long and hard before ordering my tractor and rented a Yanmar Vio27 min-ex plenty of times for work.
Say I wake up in the morning and decide to remove a few stumps or dig a drainage trench. Before my purchase, I would have to call the rental yard and ask if they had the mini-ex available (most of the time, NO), IF they did then I would have to wait until after 9am, get in the truck and get gas since it was 45 mins each way, drive to the rental yard, fill out 3 pages of paper work, copy my license, hook up the trailer, wait for them to load the mini-ex while my truck is getting thrown around because they're idiots, then re-strap it myself because they're idiots then finally drive home wasting more gas and time.
Once home, I would have to unstrap and unload, remove the stump(s), dig trench, etc... while watching the hour meter since I was charged and arm and a leg for anything over 8 hours. After completing the task, I would reload the mini-ex, strap it down, make sure there is no new scratches on it (not joking!), waste more time and gas driving it back to the rental yard, wait for an hour for a "tech" to unload it and check it over trying to find any new scratches (not joking) then proceed inside to read me over the 3 page contract and charge me $200 for the 8 hrs plus $50 per hour over 8. Finally, I leave and drive home with an empty gas tank and empty wallet for a couple of stumps or a trench.
Time spent: ALL DAY
Cost: Mini-ex-$250, Gas in truck-$50, Cost of my time lost driving around and dealing with "techs"-$300+
Fast forward to after my tractor purchase. I wake up in the morning deciding to remove a few stumps or dig a trench. Have my coffee, walk outside, start the tractor, remove the stump(s), put tractor away and go inside.
Time spent: 2-3 hours
Cost: $10 worth of diesel
Aggravation saved: PRICELESS!
If your going to actually use it and not just buying it for one or two small jobs then it's well worth the money. Especially come resale time.