11/01/2026
The deal doesn't die at the negotiation table. It dies in the inspection report.
Every buyer's inspector walks the exterior with a flashlight. Rotted boards, soft spots at the sill, cracked stucco, paint peeling at the trim — none of it stops a sale by itself, but all of it ends up on page four, circled, with a dollar figure next to it. That figure is what the buyer asks you to knock off.
You can negotiate with the report. Or you can make it boring.
Re-clad the elevation before you list. 8mm HPL goes over the existing wall as a ventilated rainscreen — no tear-off dumpster, no weeks of exposure. Honey Oak in 198mm horizontal lap reads as a recently finished exterior in the listing photos, and in the report it reads as: cladding in good condition, no defects noted.
US stock, two weeks to site. Matte, Class A, 30-year limited warranty that transfers as a talking point in the listing.
Selling in the next few months? Message us now — the cladding should be done before the photographer comes, not after the inspection.