I'm done with ink, after a half-dozen HP ink sponges over the last 15 years.

I purchased a Brother MFC-L2740DW last year and it's rock solid. I don't do a lot of printing; for me that's an argument against inkjets, since the ink gets "used up" even when the printer is idle for long periods. It's nice not to have to worry about it deciding to run a cleaning cycle when I'm trying to make a copy or print something I need to get out the door, though.

2-sided printing is a breeze, and 2-sided scanning is very fast (it scans both sides of the page at the same time). Copies are painless as well.

It's monochrome, but the toner is very cheap compared to ink and you don't have to worry about it drying out. Given your price range, though, you could look into color lasers if B/W isn't enough. I haven't missed color printing, but Mme. DeBoulet has an older Epson for her color output needs.

Re: the CD/DVD comment above . . . I had to burn one a couple of months ago; some wedding pictures for a technophobe friend that didn't understand Google Drive. Brought back memories

And regarding single- vs. multi-function: I don't have a dedicated print/copy room, so desk and credenza space is valuable. Multi-function has always worked for me; out of the 6 printing devices I've used over the last decade and a half, only one of them has had the scanner crap out before the print mechanism.