I was a real estate in Idaho in the mid 00s and the only people I knew who had the super nice cars were the long-time brokers and the real estate school instructors. People that rarely if ever met with clients. That said, I worked low end stuff. I could see high end stuff very much requiring outward signs of "success" otherwise the clients might think you suck at your job.
I left the field because the incentives and commission structure was so out of whack with what it should be. Selling a house and doing 95%+ of the work got you half of half the commission. 6% total, 1.5% to buyer broker, 1.5% to buyer agent, 1.5% to seller broker, 1.5% to seller agent. The agents (not the brokers) did 95% of the actual work, but the law required a licensed broker to "oversee" the transaction. People only got paid when a house sold, so there was heavy incentive on both sides of the transaction to get the right person into the right house, and as the great Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman) tells Marge Simpson, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The right house is the house that's for sale. And the right person is anyone." I could go on for a long time, but suffice to say it seems absurd to me that the fee to a seller is directly proportional to the value of the house, completely disconnected from the amount of labor involved in the transaction.
Yeah, I grant you that is the case in certain occupations. It's funny, because in other lines of work (like accountancy, for example), you're actually discouraged from meeting clients in a flashy car.
to which you should be replying "sure, let me send you the receipt so you can expense it". If it is for work, the employee cannot expect to pay for a required piece of equipment.
Agreed, but those outward pressures can be pretty harsh. I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. I was driving a 2019 Kia Forte at the time. Some industries just tie your personal life and expenses to your work life way too much.