I've recently purchased a T-Rex SE V2 with 3 hs 65 karbonite cyclic, a Futaba 9650 digital tail with a 401 gyro (basically everything but the radio) for less than 650 bucks from a hobby shop in Suffern NY. You can't bling it out much more than it comes stock.

I learned to hover in all orientations (right side up) in about two weeks with the Realflight G3.5. It has a great (but initially frustrating) hover orientation training program that really worked for me.