., very porous soil, while capable of changing the topography, may drain too fast to direct water away as you desire).

Look into digging some soil and trench away from the house, put the proper foundation drains in, seal the foundation and be done.Having moisture in the basement continuously makes for a very muskey environment, I have hated that in every old house I have lived in.

Your reputation is your most important asset and you risk soiling it if you leave the Seller with a bad taste in their mouth. 

The window on underneath the stairs is a ~200 sq ft storage room with bathroom.

The "Goo" then hardens and keeps the slab at height (for a while), because it's tree roots and soil conditions that make the cement move.Sometimes they drill hole to inject it, sometimes they come at it from the side.It's FAST..you can look it up on the web (see YouTube).For the Mockups I use GIMP....it's like Photoshop with less features, but enough to get the job done.There is a learning curve to it.

Have you posted an ad online for free soil?

Yazoo clay is a type of soil that moves and fluctuates.

The second is the organic results which appear underneath. 

Yeah...I saw a dollar laying on the ground the other day and I picked it up to see if there was anything of value laying underneath it :-)I think we get high inflation for an extended period here in the intermeidate term.

I know there is a great country somewhere underneath all the bureaucratic and political ignorance and hypocrisy.