$295 for a working tractor with mower does not sound too bad, but you won't really know what you have until you get home. Be prepared to deal with a surprise or two, such as a dry-rotted tire, or ignition or fuel system problems. The Ring around the middle mower blade is a piece of sheet metal that probably has cracked or gotten mangled. A bit of welding is probably in order to repair it, but isn't too critical, just make sure it stays out of the way of the blades. In any event, you won't know what you really have until you get home and try the mower out. This will shake out how good your clutch, brakes, spindles, PTO, and mower deck integrity stacks up.
The early NF machines are pretty rugged and straightforward to work on, yours is a gear-drive unit with a single-plate dry disk clutch, mechanical PTO, and a wet disk internal brake. The mower decks use roller bearings similar to automotive wheel bearings. It might be a good idea to disassemble and clean/repack the spindles. Getting the rust and crud out is always a good idea, and if a bearing is just starting to go, a pair of new bearings now is cheaper than a pair of new bearings, plus a spindle in a few months. New spindles ain't cheap!
One area of weakness on the early NF models is the steering, which tends to work loose. Most of the play is caused by the roll pin that holds the left spindle assembly together. A new roll pin can help, but there is a good chance the hole in the spindle is egged out too. New tie rod/drag link ends and using a tapered pin similar to the cotter pins on old bicycle cranksets also help tighten it up, as well as doing some work on the steering box. There is a lot of knowledge in the FAQ to help you with some of these jobs, they are pretty straightforward, but can be a bit dirty and time-consuming.
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