commercial real estate to real estate investment

Hello,

Hoping to get some advice on my next career move here.

I am 27 years old and have been working at a boutique real estate brokerage in Toronto since I graduated. My business has pretty much strictly been land deals, and although this has been a decent experience at first, I've developed a interest in the investment side of real estate.

Therefore, I am interested in knowing if anyone can provide some advice on the prospects of a broker making the jump. My main area of interest is private equity real estate or hedge fund real estate, but working for a REIT would be alright as well.

In addition to whatever advice you might have, here's a couple additional questions:

1) Is an MBA my only realistic shot at making this switch? If so, should I be aiming for a target US school? Or is something like University of Toronto or McGill sufficient? Keep in mind that Canada's market for this kind of stuff isn't too big (at least by my knowledge). My undergrad degree is political science.

2) Lack of brand name experience on the resume an issue? I'm open to doing an internship at a bank to get some finance experience, but I'm not too sure if I can land one at my age.

3) Is the CFA helpful for this?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks a lot.