Picking up this thread again with some comments...
The market is very different in the US and Europe, buying a TR is mandatory here in europe, there is not a chanse to get a job without bonding or paying for your rating on any machine! I think a couple of thousand pilots who has been in that situation can agree with me.
I bought my A320 TR last summer at Sabena, 8 months later I'm flying the A321 in a Turkish Airline. And I did not pay for hours!
My advise, buy a TR on a machine you like and then start looking for a job, within a year you will most probably have found one...