It has more to do with the look you are going for than anything else. The primary difference between paint & stain is the thickness of the film once dry. Stain will show everything. Paint will try to hide it. I would not trust just any latex paint film over unprimed anything outside, especially a hi-build product which I think duration is. Just the weight of the coats can "help" the peeling.

Have the cost of replacement garage door added into your closing cost. You replace at your convenience when you decide on the exterior colors.

clean with tsp and scrub it with a deck brush and repaint with flat paint since you dont know what product was used

Getting ready to paint the exterior of our 1 story home, Front of house remodeled and has pre primed Hardie plank and the rest is T111 siding. As much as I would like to put more Hardie siding on its just not in the financial cards at the moment. Power washing--I'm hesitant because I know it can do damage on old plywood siding but I feel we could do lower sections safely and would have to do the old scrub brush and garden hose on the upper gable ends. Borrowing our SIL 2000 psi electric power washer and will use widest tip. Will also give a full week for drying, maybe pick up a moisture meter? House Wash-- I know about TSP but BM store recommended Jomax products. Any preferences? I heard simple green can leave a residue? Mold-- Since I live in the rainy PNW I know there will me mold. House is painted dark brown but in shady area there is some brown muddy looking spots. Is bleach solution good enough some kind of moldicide (sp)? Scrub brush-- Is a deck scrub brush appropriate? Its pretty stiff bristles but anything smaller would take forever although we've got time. Scrape first or power wash first, then scrape and rinse again? Filler-- Anybody have a favorite brand of filler? MH Ready Patch? Plastic wood? Minwax wood putty? Mostly for a few nail holes that were sunk to deep but also for a few gouges here and there. Gutters-- Do metal gutters need a different kind of paint than house paint? We don't have fascia boards the gutters are spiked onto the end of the rafters but they are in good condition. Soffits-- I don't have true soffits, it's just the plywood roof decking and the 2x4 rafter tails. I know this isn't the best but its what we got. There are a few tips of roofing nails poking thru here and there which will make it hard to scrape and sand. Can the tips be snipped of with some bolt cutters? Below are pics of the worst offending T111 where the paint is checking and the next pic is where I used a carbide scraper and then painted the center 2 strips with existing paint. This is the sun baked side of the house I think this house was originally stained brown and they threw on some brown Valspar paint and primer to "freshen" it up before we bought it. I don't think this house has seen more than 1 coat of paint in its 40 years. They may have re-stained it more than once but I'll never know but there wasn't more than 1 coat of paintThoughts? Comments? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Happy Friday to all of you and thanks for taking the time to check out my post! Karen