I literally took my time with the thieves guild, made a character that did nothing but the thieves guild(and side quests) and managed to finish the questline at level 44 (i also didnt fast travel -unless by carriage morrowind style- and was on master difficulty so you level up way faster). By the time i finished the thieves guild, i had an entire town in the ragged flagon with one of every kind of merchant a fence with 4000 gold and badass items. Also in almost every other town there was another fence with another 4000 gold on them and the kahjiit caravan was also a fence with another 4000 gold.
When you finished the thieves guild and do all the extra [censored] as you go, you actually feel like you earned your spot as guild leader above all the other (older more veteran) members of the guild because they were going down the [censored]ter til you showed up and did a [censored]load of stealing and [censored] to rebuild the guild back to its former glory.
