You will get plenty of recommendations, but before they start it would be wise to see if they have a place to put it where it won't go off the rails when you walk by. I recommend putting a half glass of water on the proposed place and if it wobbles significantly when you walk, I would look for someplace else. The water should remain virtually still for best results. That said, I think the Music Hall 5.3 is a good first table. Comes pretty much set up with a decent enough cartridge. A lot of people seem to like the Pioneer PLX-1000 direct drive. It's about $700, but you will need a cartridge. Maybe if you buy from one of the online dealers, they can mount a nice $300 cart in there for you and you'll be in business. But don't overlook the placement issue.
Starter turntable and MM cartridge recommendations
My daughter and her husband are putting together their first system. They are wanting to build their system around vinyl, but are on a limited budget, with something like $700-$1000 allocated for that table and a MM cartridge. They will be using the internal MM phono preamp on a Lyngdorf 2170 integrated. A used table is fine.