Stain cedar siding or cover in vinyl

[Thomas C.]

I recently bought a duplex that was built in 1986. The last owner stopped maintaining it a while back and the cedar siding needs some work. It hasn't been stained in 10+ years so my options are to do minor wood repair and stain it, or cover it in vinyl.

It's looking like it will take around 7k to repair and stain it all. Or i can put vinyl on it for around 9-10k.

I plan to hold it as a rental for a long time (10+ years) but am fully aware that circumstances could change and I may end up selling sooner. Its high quality cedar siding that I think would look very good again after staining. However the cost of maintaining cedar siding just doesn't seem to make sense for a rental. I understand cedar will need re-staining every 5 years whereas vinyl should be be good for 20+ years.

I'm a little worried I could potentially hurt its resale value using vinyl since the cedar siding is generally thought to be higher quality material. However since its a duplex I feel that most people interested in buying it would actually rather it be vinyl since vinyl works better as a low maintenance rental. The road it is on is mostly cedar sided duplexes but they're all back in the woods so it won't look out of place if its the only one that's vinyl. Also this road is surrounded by subdivisions that are primarily vinyl if that matters.

I'm curious what some more experienced landlords think about these options and if there is anything else i should be factoring into my analysis.