Thoughts on buying a house with LP Siding?

[Julie Kern]

My husband and I are in the market for our 3rd rental property.  Yesterday we looked at 3 houses, 2 of which were built in the 90's and have LP siding.  For the house that had the strongest potential as a rental, the siding appears to be in good shape, with a few places needing to be repaired/replaced.  

So, for experienced investors/rehabbers, if you were evaluating this property, would you build in siding replacement as part of your rehab cost and go ahead and plan on replacing with another material (Hardie, LP Smartside?) up front as part of the rehab? Or, if it appears to be in overall good shape, just replace the areas that are damaged and factor siding replacement in down the road as CapEx?

Or... would you just move on.  And I guess part of the answer to that would depend on whether you can buy at the right price.

[Bob B.]

Replace what's bad.  Caulk and paint the house with a good paint.  Be sure that the bottom edge has plenty of paint and buy lots of caulk.