Let's be real straight on your goals here.
Are you looking to sell it for profit? Are you looking to ride it as reliable transportation? If so, how far and how fast?
I would suspect that you can get the needed parts and repair it for around 100 bucks. Take advantage of the treatland.tv black friday sale (theres a post with the 20% off code on the general forum). Add another 50 if you need tools, but those are always worthwhile expenses. Time-wise expect to spend several hours at least researching, trying things, cleaning things and getting generally frustrated. When you're rippin pissed off, walk away and come back later. ignoring that advice is how things get to be expensive...
As for reliability, no mopeds are perfect. The first few months it will likely be less reliable until you get the kinks worked out, crud outta the tank etc etc. But if you can make it through the frustration of pushing it home weekly for 4 or 5 times to clean the carb or replace another tube or figure out which wire shorted out, it will likely become more reliable, plus you develop the skills and collect the tools to repair on the roadside if it has issues in the future. Also run an inline fuel filter - that will save MUCH headache.
If you're looking for cheap transport that you don't have to work on, if you're hauling lots of stuff, if you're gonna get fired for being 5 minutes late to work, I'd think about something else for transportation; maybe like a decent road bicycle or a cheap older name-brand scooter.