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I've got access to the programs and I'm becoming pretty handy with CorelDraw and my local laser cutter.

I don'tw ant to go into business; I just want to populate my terrain. I'd like to hear if anyone has tips on learning to make laser-cut models.

Laser-cut out of what material?

Definitely start on some simple stuff like hills, walls, crates etc, where there's not much to go wrong.

This is a topic I myself love and, after making some stuff myself and analising stuff made by professional terrain makers came to a few conclusions that I can share with you.
1- Cutting is ALWAYS faster than engraving - Try to get as much detail as you can by using cuts and not engraving. When you engrave, try to engrave light patterns, like panel lines and thin brick lines, NOT texture. That takes forever, I once engraved a wall for 6 hours for not so good results.
2- Think in layers - Let's suppose you want to build a grouted brick wall with the brick visible in some areas. What would you do? Probably engrave the whole brick area 1mm downward and engrave the texture, right? Well, wrong. That takes forever, because, see 1. So, the solution is to think in layers. Cut the wall with the holes for the areas that are brick. Cut the brick separately with a light engrave of the brick pattern and glue it to the grouted wall. Done. You have tridimensionality with a far cleaner result and way faster cutting.
3- Non organic textures result better - Don't try to make heavily weathered stone, for example, it will require a lot of engraving and it takes forever.
4- Complement with other materials and methods - this one is very self explanatory, don't consider laser cut as an end all solution for everything, but consider it as another tool.
5- Avoid non-rectilinear angles that can't be covered - Convex shapes take some fixing because the hole between panels is turned to the outside.
6- Be aware of the laser beam size and the material tolerances. For example, if your beam is +- 1mm (this depends on the material and the power settings you're using, but there's always a beam size to consider) you have to give an extra 1.2mm in the female (hole) shapes where male fittings will fit, otherwise the dimensions won't match, and the extra 0.2mm are to make up for material irregularities and the friction caused by the act of fitting the parts together.
7- Try to hide fittings on features - There's less stuff to hide in the end.
8- Always use the minimum power and fastest speed possible to cut the material - This avoids the material being set on fire and avoids the walls being too burned and deformed.
That's all I can remember for the moment, if I can remember anything else, I'll post it here.

When you start designing more complex items you may find it easier to make mistakes in assembly (gluing tab B into slot F). To avoid this, make the tabs/slots asymmetric - it's a lot harder to accidentally glue 3 small tabs into the the two large slots.

Hinges are easier than you'd think (drawbridge etc) - and if you want to be fancy, google "living hinge laser cut" and see some fun curves you can make easily.

Don't be afraid to not-laser-cut part of it - if 10 difficult cuts + nightmare assembly can become 2 cuts and a screw, use a screw.