Once you have determined your outgoing expenses and communicated a budget to your significant, I will move to your housing situation.

Some things to consider now, before you actually start investing, is to determine what type of investing you think you'd want to do (Rental Property vs House-hack, Fix & Flip, vs Airbnb, vs Wholesaling).

Internet age has not changed that truth. 

What’s your rule of thumb for determining how much you will pay for land/lots? 

If you're going out of state or country then you should also agree on what types of problems require contacting your partners and how urgent they need to be solved.2) Use the Internet to understand the marketA lot of people are reluctant to buy property remotely because they feel it's too risky.

Determine your price range, review your financial situation and if you need to finance, check out your options.

You need to determine what is important to you and focus on what you are willing to do to get you to your dream. 

If property is vacant the appraiser determines the market value of rents thus you will want to have a lease and paid rents at closing.

This has worked fine so far and I'm hopeful that they will build in this functionality in the near future.How do you determine what useful lifespan to apply to various CapEx items, @Genny Li?

You can obtain a Jurisdictional Determination from the local Army Corps office.