How to break into the field for relatively small amount of money

[Tom Stone]

I'm 23, been working my first full time job out of college for 8 months. How can I use ~5k to break into real estate investment and start gaining some experience? I've been doing on-and-off research for about a year now, and I feel like I need to pull the trigger and just get started. Ideally, I'd have more money saved at this point, but that's life.

I'm not looking for super detailed explanations, but rather I'm trying to amass several methods with which you guys have been successful, so I can know what my options are.

I'm sure this exact post exists elsewhere in this forum, but I really wanted to break the ice and get involved with BP.