Personally I would stay away from home owner saws regardless of brand, and that includes the Stihl 290. Reason is that if you're in this for the long haul, you will eventually have 2 or 3 other saws, and a home owner saw will not be a part that group. It also won't hold much for resale value, so in the end it's some what of a waste of money.
Find a good local dealer that sells Stihl, Husky, Jonsred, or Dolmar and get one of their smallest home owner saws. Don't be afraid of buying a good used saw. If a pro saw has been maintained at all it will still last you your life time. The small saw will be a little to small to cut 10 cord a year, and it will be slower at cutting stuff over 8"~10" but its a great place to start. If you want to get something a little bigger, you can trade the small pro saw in and get a good a good buy on something bigger, or more likely you will keep the small pro saw and buy a second saw that is in the 60~70cc range.
At 10 cord per year, You will find that after a few years you may end up cutting more big stuff than you realize, so I wouldn't recommend trying to pick out a bigger saw just yet. Truth be known, you'll probably end up with at least 3 saws if you are cutting that muck, but don't worry about that just yet. You can address those needs when you get there. But yes, you will NEED 2 saws before too long, especially if you cut alone much (not a good idea if you are new at it). You will get the bar pinched in a log, and not be able to get it out. Your partner will have to make a few cuts to free your bar up, or you will have to use a second saw to do it, or an axe. The axe sucks... trust me. There's always a place for a good small pro saw in a line up, and when you do buy a bigger saw, the small one makes a great back up, and you will still use it for limbing and bucking small rounds that you won't need to split. Either way a small pro saw is a useful tool in any line up, and it's a great place to start. While it's more at home cutting smaller stuff, it CAN handle stuff well over 24", it just takes longer.