It's a great way to increase your net worth and these loans can also be used to pull cash out of a property as it appreciates allowing you to reinvest money into new deals.Happy to connect to discuss further. 

I see the money but can't get my foot in the door. 

Investors pool money to purchase assets within the fund.

But I wanted to buy 1-2 short term rentals with the money.  

Maybe some specialty programs exist for prefab homes or a custom ADU builder might have his own lender partner they could refer you to... but unless you yourself are an experienced home builder with a track record in ground-up construction, you're basically looking at a hard money or a HELOC.

It's not a lot of money, but after awhile, it begs the question: why am I paying for this? 

You will then have a few options with that rent money....you can put it into principal or you can start saving it to purchase yet another property.

I'd like to enter the private/hard money market as an investor with money to lend.

Don't assume that because you win a judgement you will get money.

RE is not a magical business that prints money no matter what.