The best bet for purchasing a quality piano is to go to a piano store. We are lucky to have three stores with quality pianos in the area
Dan the Piano Man: http://www.danthepianoman.com/
Music City: https://www.musiccitypianos.com/
Steinway Gallery: https://steinwayspokane.com/
These stores have a wide variety of new and used pianos for all levels of players. They also carry quality digital pianos. Typically, if you buy a basic piano to begin and decide you want to upgrade, they will allow trade-ups if the piano was purchased at their store. All pianos sold at these stores will work for beginning lessons. They carry a wide range of pianos for various budgets and typically will take monthly payments if that is your preference.
If you are looking at used acoustic pianos, I recommend calling a registered piano technician to check the instrument before purchasing. You can find a local technician through the Piano Technicians Guild website. Use the Find a Registered Piano Technician link and search by zip code.
The website is at: https://www.ptg.org/home
To move a used piano in the Spokane area, call Dan the Piano Man: http://www.danthepianoman.com/
Although nothing replaces the “feel” or “touch” of an acoustic pianos’ keys, a good quality digital keyboard can work for beginning lessons. It will be a bit of an adjustment to play an acoustic piano if you are typically playing a digital–acoustic keys take more pressure to push down. Not all keyboards work well for learning to play (see notes below on purchasing a digital keyboard for lessons).
Acoustic pianos are preferred for piano lessons–there is nothing like the sound or touch of an acoustic. However, digital keyboards can work if you purchase the right one. A digital keyboard should have weighted, full-sized keys. The weighted keys allow the keyboard to play loud and soft (unlike toy keyboards). The key set should be a full set (which is 88 keys–you should see 7 full sets of the 2/3 black key pattern). It should have a damper pedal (which hooks into the back) and built in speakers. A separate music stand (which can be adjusted for height and hold larger music books) and piano bench is also recommended.