If so, would you be willing to please offer any tips/advice that would help a newbie avoid potential catastrophe?

There are very few catastrophic claims and you'd be foolish to file a claim for anything small.

It may be what you can get.So you desire to invest $32K to $35K (depending on doing the estimated repairs) for a property that you calculate cash flow at $200 to $300 using optimistic maintenance/cap expense, vacancy, and PM estimates that if I used my cap expense/maintenance numbers for So Cal would bring this to negative cash flow (I am sure in Columbus the cap expense is a little less but a lot of the costs are material costs).I suspect the reality of this purchase is that it will cash flow less than $100/month over the long term if nothing catastrophic happens (one of my duplexes got hit by 2 hurricanes to give you a very unlucky, real example).You will want to do better. 

Before I retired, I used my HDHC plan as catastrophic insurance against a major illness.

A $1 million dollar insurance policy might sound like a lot until something catastrophic happens in one of your investment properties.

Ongoing leaks can undermine the soil below your building which can cause catastrophic issues.

I believe it tends to give me a slightly lower return, because the sponsor is going to be more careful, and if there is a severe downturn will prevent me from taking catastrophic losses.

A good real estate attorney and CPA will help you save money and avoid financial catastrophes! 

The 1% and 3% are common, and so are the following levels:-$1000-$2500/$3000-$5000-$10,000Many investors tend to do $2500 or $5000 deductibles as it keeps premiums lower and rates more stable by eliminating some of the smaller claims from the mix that an investor can really afford to take care of on their own.Our advice would be to approach insurance from a catastrophic perspective, in other words, use it when a loss would severely harm or take you out of business. 

If the water heater really is that old I'd replace it, they generally only last 10 years or so and can fail catastrophically or over a weekend when the tenants are away, flooding the unit.