Unclear what we are to vote for???

Have you bought? buying?

Has inspection been done? cracked foundation can be very serious issue.

Fix the foundation if you stay or go.

Sharon, For some reason 3 vote choices (Sell as is, fix up to sell, or fix up to stay) didn't post as intended. We bought the home almost 4 years ago. The whole "Foundation Problems" thing is mostly cosmetic and more hype than significant problem in my opinion. With the drought we've had over the last few years many houses a crack here and there. The structural engineer of course prescribed a plan of 1. a few piers 2. lime injection to stabilize the soil and 3. a French drain to manage ground water run-off.

intoit, I guess we'll have to stabilize the foundation 1. because it MIGHT actually help, although I'm skeptical and 2. that would provide a transferable lifetime warranty that might help us if we decide to sell.

Thank you both for your thoughtful responses :)

Hard to sell in that condition! If you love it spend the money.

I would get more than one opinion about the foundation and possible repairs first. A house with inherent problems will not sell without repair or will totally scare off a buyer if an inspection picks up the problem.

Foundations a very important to buyers. That is one of the main things their inspector will check out. The yard sounds lovely. I would put some money into the foundation in any case. Not a glamorous way to spend the money, but a necessary one in my opinion.

Lots of things to factor in. First, have a structural engineer determine what the problem is, what could be done to fix it and what the cost would be. Then there is the value of the property and also if you want to stay there.
If you own it and know that there is a problem you have to disclose it. We purchased a house with a cracked foundation that we luckily found with inspection. The owners didn't know. After getting a structural engineer in, the fix was not that big a cost, so we lowered our asking price and were accepted. We too were on a ravine lot, with a stream and woods.
I think you have to differentiate in the decisionmaking as well what is causing the foundation problems. Is it partially to do with the lot being on a slope, is it partially due to the stream and the water table or water that would be hard to direct away from the property? These are things that you either can't remediate or would be quite difficult to fix, so that's something to consider.
In terms of the property itself, there is the actual cracked foundation itself and what needs to be done to correct it to assure the structure is sound, and then possibly secondary visual problems, eg surface cracks, that don't affect the structure that might not be as important to deal with.
All things to consider - best to you in making your decision -

When we were looking for our 1st home, we were looking at older homes that were fixer-uppers and so there were a few that had foundation problems. We bidded on a few of them (out bid unfortunately) so did the inspection stuff etc but it was a happy realization that the foundation work wasn't as expensive as we initially thought.

Stabilizing can do wonders ESPECIALLY if you deal with water flow as well - water damage is most likely the cause of the foundation issues anyway ("water is the enemy of the home"). Get a couple estimates just to make sure the quotes and the scope of work is in range, and then make your decision based on that. It sounds like you really love this house, but if you decide to move, realize that the amount you'll get will be drastically reduced if you don't do the work, so you may end up doing it anyway.

If you like the location and neighborhood then fix it up as best as budget allows.

Without knowing your situation, it is hard to say... If you are not in love with the house and surroundings, you can sell as is. If you can clear enough to search for something you love, and not settle for so-so.

We sold our starter home for an excellent price considering the condition it was in, and used the proceeds to buy the lovely home we have now. We could have fixed it up to bring it up to the value of the homes in our neighborhood but we knew we wouldn't have gotten all of our investment back. We loved our neighborhood, our immediate neighbors and we were on a wonderful lot that is large and backs up to a wooded tract. We love our new home and have not looked back on our decision to sell our little house and move on. :)

Funny thing about reno's... many times, the buyer has other ideas. No sense in wasting your time and hard earned dollars for little return. Most needs are structural in nature to better accomodate the buyer, and attract better buyers instead of " looky-lous".

Since you own the home you will either have to fix the foundation to sell it, or take a rather deep reduction in the sales price to sell it. I'd fix the foundation by hiring a really good structural engineer that has some experience with drainage and irrigation. In Texas if we stabilize the soil around a foundation through irrigation we minimize the dry out and cracking of a very unstable soil. Rigid concrete can't handle soils drying out and shrinking so sometimes the antidote is adding perimeter irrigation to keep the moisture content of the soil more consistent. Besides that, it's hard to put a price on the peace and seclusion you are feeling in that backyard!

Hoebeke Builders,
Since you are in our area do you have any recommendations for foundation repair companies? We had several estimates (probably 18 months ago) that ranged from @ $5000 to @ $20,000. I couldn't tell if they just had different ideas about how to fix the problem or different ideas about what my credit limit was :)

We've never had much exposure with foundation work (most all of our foundations are pier and beam), but on a few remodels where some additional shoring was necessary we have called in Brown Foundation. They seem to have more expertise than most. Interestingly, if you are in Texas, a friend of mine was trying to sell his home here years ago and had a cracked foundation and no money. I suggested he get a soaker hose and just let it run for a week or so. That did the trick - the wet soil expanded and everything tightened itself back up so they could shore up the exterior foundation beam from there! Very little interior repair work was necessary. This soil in Texas is awful!