Water & space are definitely two of the big priorities for land. Not so sure about the beach, but that's mostly since the options for ocean-front aren't nearly as good as inland (in terms of limiting government involvement & nearby populations, etc.)
At the moment, I'm mostly trying to see what ideas people have for how to buy the land. I've got thousands of hours into researching the crops, architecture, decision-making, conflict resolution, etc... but the part that seems the hardest to find breakdowns of is how people actually came up with the money and made the purchases (assuming someone didn't just have it laying around.)
Sounds like you and I have a similar situation. My family is full of builders willing to help me, but they leave me on my own to find land. I have no idea how all of that works 😫😩