Plus, there's still so many positive cash flowing and 1% deals here in Columbus Ohio.

Tell them they can put “clean fill” in the low spot or they can buy dirt from the high spot.  

My primary focus for this investment is on long-term appreciation potential and leveraging rental income to pay down the mortgage, in this case I have no cashflow.Given the current market conditions, I understand that cash flow might not be immediate, but I'm more interested in the potential for appreciation over time and the ability to offset expenses through rental income.

To help with you issue of cash flow, consider the idea of financing your rehab budget with your hard money lender.

Solid market for low income investors, cash flow investors, Section 8 investors, that type of thing.

Many people like Real Estate Investing because of its potential to spit out cash flow on a consistent basis and the McDonald strategy has been super successful because of the super successful products (food) that the company offers. 

I could cash flow $2000 a month on this house. 

I don't want to interrupt my cash flow and I don't want to keep dealing with the damage.

Your responsibility ends with providing a clean and safe place to live.

The price point will be determined by how much time you spend searching for properties (MLS vs Wholesalers and private sellers) and how much work you want to put in to get it cash flowing (level of rehab and sourcing and selecting tenants).