I would like to offer the tenants a lease option, which could end up bringing premium rent from some units.

This gives us a chance to continue to save and figure out where we'd like to be.Maybe it's my suburban upbringing, but the idea of pursuing this in an urban environment seems less sketchy, since most people are living in tighter quarters as it is.

We ended up bringing almost $40,000 to closing after consideration of points, prepaid taxes, insurance, 20% down, etc. 

In most, our path would reflect the average of our genetics, up bringing, and other traits.

I do respectfully disagree to the comment of not appreciating what I have. especially from my upbringing. 

That upbringing led him to seek an engineering degree and a career as a civil servant, one that to him provided stability that he missed growing up.

Your proposed solution would effectively end up bringing us to the same end point as @Neal Bawa solution of having a healthy diversity mix and avoiding war zones. 

Who came from the same upbringing  as you, and vice versa.

I have always had this misconception I wasn't going to be able to create wealth because I came from a very blue collar upbringing.

I was brought up on the notion that your first purchase should be an investment vehicle contrary to her upbringing in a doctors family where mom picked out the house.