So you've mastered the hustle. You've built the relationships. Maybe you've even got a wall of sales awards tucked behind your desk. Now, there's a different kind of ambition knocking: building your own real estate agency. Not a side hustle, not a vanity brand—an actual, operating, revenue-earning business under your own name. But making the leap from top-producing agent to founder-operator is its own kind of terrain. Here's how to navigate it—starting with the decisions that matter most, not just the