Whatcha gonna do with it?
Depends on what you're going to do with it... For a good knock around, have fun out back gun, there are a lot of good, inexpensive ones out there, RIA and others. But there are some considerations...
If you're going to put a LOT of rounds through it (probably not, cause if you can afford enough ammo to do that you wouldn't be looking for an "reasonably priced" (read - inexpensive) gun, then you want to make sure it's going to hold up and that the steel in it is good and whether it's forged, cast, etc., and you'll find differing opinions on the importance of this...)
If you're going to use it for fun, an occasional malfunction is no big deal, but if you're going to use it for personal defense (either at home or carrying), then reliability is paramount and some guns will be a lot more reliable (albeit perhaps slightly less accurate, but definitely within tolerance for self defense), while others will be more accurate but more finicky and not as reliable.
If you're going to use this gun as is, and not modify it, then that's another consideration... how important is a commander hammer rather than a regular hammer, do you want a 1911 or a 1911A1 (hammer and beavertail are different and one might bite your hand more than t he other depending on your grip and hand size, etc. Or are you going to use this gun as the base to build a 'better' 1911 by making mods to it, in which case you don't care about the hammer and trigger and grip safety cause you're probably going to replace those at a minimum...
See what I mean? I'd do some serious reading on this forum and a number of others (though I won't be specific out of courtesy to our hosts <smile>) and see what features are important to you. As an example, Bersa makes an interesting looking inexpensive 1911, but it comes in two models (close in price but not the same) that have somewhat different features (one slightly upscale from the other). Springfield makes everything from the bare bones basic to the seriously enhanced, and for a few dollars difference you might get a much better gun or a gun with things on it you don't care about.
Just food for thought and suggestions for consideration... the fact that you want a 1911 shows you're of above average intelligence <biased grin>... so keep asking questions and reading and learning and have fun!!!
Stoney
{who fell into his first 1911 when the DI handed it to him and said "Here, see if you can hit anything with this and proceeded to hit 23 out of 25 bulls the first time he held a handgun in his life... and who's been learning about them ever since and still has MUCH to learn...}