The issues that I think hit most people are not really with equipment, though, but time/motivation/energy. For that, it takes ordinary habit forming and logging progress.
I live in a small apartment, is another issue not smell?
i.e, the room with gym equipment may begin to smell of sweat?
But the coating of the weight may smell very bad, it depends on the material :
un-coated plates won't smell, but will make lot of noise when stacked together and will easily put a dent in a wooden floor
rubber coated plates are silent, but will smell horrible for months, depending on the storage where you brought it, I had to clean mine 3 times with lots of recipes, and put it on the balcony for weeks, and even now I still notice a smell in the room.
I would go for urethane plates, won't smell and are silent.
That said, I'm a huge fan of the home workout. There's at least an hour worth of time overhead in going to the gym, and there's mental activation energy too. At home, I can easily start a workout, I never wait for a machine, I change in my bedroom instead of a locker room, I'm using my own shower, and it takes zero time to get there.
Especially for beginners, the downsides of only having dumbbells are dwarfed by the benefits of doing it at home.