It sure seems to me that the sellers did a cover-up to improve appearance.

You have no knowledge about the underlying decks' age, condition or materials used for construction.. But, wood outdoors should be stained, not painted. And if it is old and has not been regularly maintained the wood condition could be beyond where any coating will provide necessary sealing against the elements. I know the big box stores advertise restore products - I have no familiarity with them but I don't put confidence in miracle fixes.

My suggestion is to have a local deck sealing company evaluate your situation.

Hope this helps even if it isn't what you would like to hear. Good luck and enjoy your new home.

Ditto

In any case you will need to sand off the paint to resurface the deck. If the deck wood is not too far gone, I have used outdoor stainable waterproof wood filler to fill fine cracks in the wood before staining. Of course it shows but my deck surface is almost a year old and so far the filler has stayed put. That gave me more time before I had to do a total replacement.