Given this is your first deal you may have to put some money into the mix and your lender may go with a lower LTV. 

Basically you are paying more upfront in exchange for a lower long term interest rate.

This incentivizes some level of basic decency.

Wholesaling seems easier in lower priced markets from what I have seen .On the plus side if you actually have a deal it’ll be easier to assign it since there is a lot of investor activity now and it seems everyone wants to be in real estate .

I'd love to connect with you on a personal level to get an understanding how you do your lease options / sandwich lease options in Michigan. 

and if so is there a lower limit on the amount of cash flow I should expect on any given property?

Find a partner who can put in the capital or There are private/hard money lender that will let you put 10% down payment and  they will finance 100% rehab cost. keep in mind the rate will be a lot higher and they charge point (2%) but they can close fast and you might be able to negotiate the purchase price even lower. 

I came in with an offer substantially lower, and the sellers took it.

This is because the more advanced level metrics like IRR and NPV apply to properties that are valued based off their income stream.

Of course, you can just pay cash for construction expenses, but this will need more initial investment and you'll have lower return on your cash.