Quote from @Sandy Thomas: Hi Ramona, and congrats on getting your first investment property!

Soil compactionMake a template of each topic above and look through BP lookup.

I am planning on buying my first property in the Atlanta area (thinking about Sandy Springs or Smyrna).

If it was not visually obvious what was causing the foundation problems he said that he would have to do an "engineering evaluation" which could involve digging up soil samples, backhoes and drilling and could possibly cost thousands more, and thats just the price for the evaluation and wouldn't include the cost for repair.  

A decade of neglect had left water runoff seeping into the soil very close to the foundation and longitudinal cracks were present throughout the basement walls.

You most likely have a lateral load applied perpendicular to the CMU, perhaps by expansive soil?

I have purchased 35 acres with 10 acres of this having shoreline to a spring fed sandy bottom lake.Currently, I am in the process of breaking this into multiple lots and will be building homes one at a time on each lot and selling them as a residence or vacation home.

The main issue is Multnomah county and specifically the city of Portland.. if you invest outside those areas landlord laws are not what everyone makes them out to be.better deals are had as U move south from PDX  and SW Washington can work but careful of low end type situations.No income tax in Wa as well.and for the Texas idea keep in mind property tax's are sky high along with on going weather and soil issues so you want to be very careful there its not all about eviction laws.

I stayed in a converted basement Airbnb in Sandy Utah before, which is not too far from you.

@Sandi Hague, thank you for the reference!