There are lots of printers available in that price range. I still recommend kits to folks as you will be doing quite a bit of tweaking and calibrating on any printer and a kit means you will know your printer inside and out. Keep in mind the community available for your printer as well. Well posted forums regarding your particular printer will help more than customer support. This obviously means to be weary of new companies and printers.

That said, I would recommend the Printerbot Simple as anyone's first printer. There is a huge support community, lots of upgrades available from Printrbot and Thingiverse and your cash outlay will only be $300 to start. I know the tendency is to go big early but you will learn a lot working with a Simple. The laser cut wood printers don't look as polished as some of the others around but their design is very sound and are very easy to build. Printrbot is a growing company in both sales and design which helps as well.