Please any advice would help $50k can get you $200k worth of real estate using traditional financing.

All in all, I would compare the two and see which one works best for you. 

You really need to balance the opportunity cost of the interest you'll save with the returns you can make by investing that $400/month or however much you can scrape together.If you want to get real nerdy, you can download a loan amortization spreadsheet, plug in the extra payments, compare the interest saved each month versus what it'd be if you keep the loan as is, and discount the NPV into today's dollars. 

Any improvements you make need to have a comp available to compare it against. 

San Antonio is amazingly priced compared to every market and it is flaming hot because of the affordability.

Immediate positive cash flow is importing and a value-add place at a commercial loan location (more than 4 units) will add more value to it and not on a house because of the way cap-rates works versus comparables. 

You would probably cut power and take out the existing wires so they are not wondering where the power is unless it is comparable to getting it fixed. 

As with any (traditional) IRA, the tax is paid when the distribution is made later.

Since being on here I quickly realized how there is such a vast difference in the feeling in the air I get in Bigger Pockets compared to other groups (some groups in FB, in which I intend to leave the group due to not getting any real sense of value, but more like a bunch of vultures wanting to make easy money by preying on (ex: Joint Ventures) with the newbies).

This is a more traditional way to do it.