There are so many things to look out for, that it's really not worth looking out for them for a first time road bike. You've got good options there, test drive them and pick the one you like best. Make sure to get a good tough hill in during the test ride.
If you really get into it, you'll find you prefer riding the bike in and you may (or may not) find things you don't like about the bike, and if you do, you may want to upgrade. When I was regularly commuting, I put in the amount of money I saved in gas into the bike upgrade fund. For me that was about $50/month.
I'm jealous as I'm not comfortable commuting from where I live now.
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just being