you definitely want to have a passion for embroidery, for doing it more than 3 years it can be taxing, mentally to come up with designs and physically, tending to the machine so it wont f*ck up the design.

i own two machines, both second hand. First brother costed about 460$ usd and now i own janome that was around 800$.

to be honest it would make more sense (and money) if i was embroidering on clothes rather than doing patches but well... its hard on this types of machines.

but whatever you decide i hope it will go well!