"My questions are as follows..#1 what methods would be used to fix something like this?

#2 Can it even be repaired? #3 Is it even worth it to stay and fix up or should we be saving our cash up to put down on a different house? #4 What would you do?"

#1. Methods and means would be determined as job progressed. You have to open these things up to evauluate what's required then proceed accordingly. #2 Yes #3 Without seeing and evaluating remainder of house in person,there's no way on earth to give a serious answer. That will cost you roundtrip airfare from DFW, 1 day car rental,1 night hotel and $85 per hour while I'm there. #4. Your FIL gave the house away,after I answer #3,if you believe it best to give it away and move on,"What I will do" is refund your money and take it off your hands.

You may not be able to sell in that condition. My brother had a hud house he was fixing up to live in (that a whole nother nightmare, didn't know what he was doing) Anyway, one basement wall was bowed inward, heading towards collapse. He had to fix before he could sell. Got foundation specialist out to give quote. It was $5,000 or so. They were able to fix without rebuilding or digging out. But his wasn't cracked like yours, that looks bad. At least get a quote from a foundation specialist. Not many would buy house with obvious major problems. It must be effecting exterior main level walls and even roof, or will be.

In the end with my brothers house it would have been cheaper to bulldoze and rebuild. It was a one bedroom bachelors pad he was lucky to find someone to offer money for, a divorced dad, mom had kids, so bachelors pad again. But was a nice lot in middle income area so there was that.

If it costs $15,000-$20,000 to fix would you it be worth it to you?

"What would you do?"

Probably leave and not return..

That's a grossly oversimplified answer, of course. It would depend on what caused the damage, how much it would cost to fix, what the chances of recurrence were, and how smitten I was with the house.

But if I didn't yet own the house, I'd probably just walk away.

And have.

yikes. I'd call a good mason (or two) to come look at it and see what they say. If this damage has only occurred in the last few years then something has seriously changed.

Mason will not help in this situation, you need a structural design to make this repair and it has to be done by a company specializing just in that. Some of the basic repairs for something like this could be foundation tie-backs or steel channels something like this

Or something like this

More expensive repairs would be removing existing foundation and installing a new one with proper back-fill and foundation drainage system which will involve doing something like this.

Good luck

GN, that's the kind of guy (and work) I had done at my house. I was going to edit my post to say "foundation specialist" or whatever they're called, but I called him my mason. Twice. lol!

it's interesting that the cracks occur where the sump is located. Is there a diagonal crack on the floor away from the sump? My first inclination is to say the sump is removing soil below that corner causing the corner to settle. If that's the case the slab should settle some too and I'd expect to see a crack in the floor slab as well. Through block arching the movement is limited to the lower courses of masonry. that corner would need to be stabilized.

As others have said it truly depends on the value of the property whether it makes economic sense to put the money into repairs or to demolish and go new.

If the house is old but the movement is relatively new you should look outside and see if the grade has changed which may cause soil migration at that corner of the house.

It really doesn't look that bad now, but it should be addressed soon as it's not going to get better on its own. Also, I expect it would be tough to sell a house with a glaring issue like that unless the price is dramatically below typical value of similar houses in the area without foundation problems.

Based on my failing foundation experiences, I was going to suggest same as sdello.... Something is causing erosion of the soil and settling at that lower corner.