Brick foundation issues

[Matt Kowske]

We just looked at an old house with all brick foundation. At it's worst point it is bowing out almost a foot from where it used to be. We had a contractor (who does a lot of foundation work) look at it and told us it can be fixed by reinforcing with steel I-beams and quoted us at about 5k to do it. The house is a good deal, even with this repair but I'm wondering if we're due for more problems simply because it is an old brick foundation? Any thoughts?