Soliciting treadmill buying advice.

For that kind of use make sure it is a commercial model.

For starters, if the price showed $550 but jumped to $925 when you contacted the seller, to me that sounds like a red flag. Why would the price change? So I'd be a little leery about that.

As far as Precor being a good brand, that's a definite. You can read a brief overview of the brand and the current models here as well as some helpful reviews.

Still, these are very pricey treadmills so even at the $925 it's still a pretty good deal, although 1000 hours is a decent amount of wear and tear. If you can get it down to or near the stated price, you really can't go wrong.

Some tips for you if you go ahead with it:

1) Definitely ask to try it out if possible before you buy it. Make sure everything is working properly...crank it up to the speed you'll be using it at and see if everything is working order.

2) Change speeds and incline to see how it transitions from one level to the next.

3) Make sure the console is in working order as well, as they have been known to have some electronic issues on some models over time.

Hope this helps. It's a good treadmill at a good price, and if it's in working order you'll be happy with your purchase and get plenty of use out of it.

If someone upped the price like that, I'd say forget it. I wouldn't pay more than $500 for a used TM off of craigslist. FWIW, I bought a used gym-quality precor for $400 off of craigslist. It was privately owned but formerly by a gym. I figured it if it wore out after 2 years, it was still a far better deal than thousands for a new one. It's still running strong.

That's a fine treadmill, as I have that exact year and model.

I found a major deal on mine on eBay for $350 - just had to drive a few hours to pick it up. The only issue mine has is that the heart rate sensor is a bit flaky and only works about 60% of the workout (both from the hand grips and reading ANT+ signals from a separate HR strap). No issues with anything else and it's a workhorse that handles incline/speed and long workouts fine without any overheating or signs of stress. I'm definitely happy with it.

It is a beast to move. You can pretty easily break it down to two pieces if needed to fit through your door (the bottom base with the belt area, and the two vertical arms and back stand) by taking out a few screws. I believe it's around 400 lbs, all in the bottom part. Even then, it feels a lot heavier as almost all of the weight is in the front half of the belt and so it makes it difficult to move.

Usually that particular model isn't too difficult to find used in the ~$950 range, at least around here. When I was searching for mine I just did an eBay search for the main commercial brands, sorted by distance to my zip code. Found what I wanted within a week. I just bookmarked the search URL and checked a couple times a day - you can probably use the same URL with your zip code in place of the last five digits:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_udlo=300.00&_sadis=500&_fspt=1&_geositeid=0&_nkw=%28woodway%2Clandice%2Cprecor%29+treadmill&_sop=7&_fpos=90210