I have some success stories doing that but when you volunteer there is a lack of respect because they figure you get what you pay for.Some will do drugs in their car and throw the needles into the street then throw their fast food trash into your yard, or should I say my yard. 

Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or similar.

For my wife and I, we are focused on retiring in 10 years so we can be full-time parents and volunteer.

Just spitballing more ideas: become a real estate agent, or an appraiser, or a home inspector, or volunteer at Habitat for Humanity building houses, join a local investors meetup, or non-local meetup for that matter if they have zoom! 

Successful people are capable of running businesses and writing books, mastering languages, mentoring others, volunteering for charities, and many other tasks not directly associated with their business.

If you are not paying a mentor, you should be able to help in some way i.e. birddogging, photography/videography, interning, other volunteer work etc.

You can more or less see this for yourself by google searching "[credit union name] IRS form 990," to confirm that these are neither lowly gov't bearcats, nor are they starving do-gooder charity worker volunteers acting purely out of the kindness of their hearts.

I currently have a 9-5 (looking to change that =)) but am to volunteer my free time in exchange for exposure to the world of real estate investing.

It doesn't matter how much time you "volunteer" here to market yourself.

Here are a few recommendations:* Work or volunteer at a local real estate office.