Professional experts and lay knowledge in Vancouver’s accessory apartment rental market
研究了北美城市房主将地下室等空间改造成附属公寓出租时，如何依赖专业人士的初始帮助，但后续运营中更多依靠自身积累的普通人知识，且并非所有房主都能成功掌握这种知识。
Over the past few decades, many homeowners in North American cities have engaged in the practice of converting under-utilised spaces in their house (such as basements and attics) into self-contained apartments known as accessory dwelling units or secondary suites. Such apartments are then often rented out in order to generate ‘mortgage helper’ revenue. Homeowners-cum-landlords often benefit from professional expertise received from real estate agents and mortgage brokers at the initial stages of entering this private rental housing market. But interviews I conducted in Vancouver with homeowners renting out secondary suites reveal that the ‘lay expertise’ required to navigate ongoing participation in this rental market is often generated by homeowner-landlords themselves. All the same, the interviews also provide evidence that not all homeowner-landlords succeed in developing or acquiring sufficient lay expertise. The production and circulation of this lay knowledge, I conclude, are contingent rather inevitable processes.