Interesting, I agree with what your saying here. This is sort of my worry with residential electrical. I just don't find there's a ton of maintenance.
What I do have out in Vancouver here is extremely expensive real estate. A lot of times you'll have both spouses in the family working full-time and making good money and essentially they just aren't interested in the maintenance of the home. They are also happy to pay somebody to keep their expensive investment in great shape. Also a lot of people out here might be cash poor but they do have large lines of credits attached to their homes. Smaller niche though I'm thinking...
I'm wondering if maybe it's not an amazing money maker but it definitely keeps you in their home and keeps you top of mind and if they are doing any electrical work whatsoever you're gonna get that work I would assume.