I read about the soil problem in the North East side of SA, and will definitely look out for that.

Currently seeing an increase in tenants doing government infrastructure work (soil remediation, fiber optic networks underground, windfarms).

I am a plumbing  repair contractor and I see these basket cases at least one time every month where a rental house has a broken sewer pipe underneath the house, there is 2 feet of human poop under the house and the landlord doesn't have one penny to pay for the job that costs no less than $15,000.

A foundation company is recommending powerbraces (fancy I beams) to take the weight of the soil off the wall and evenly distribute it to the floor joists and the rest of the house.

Always be carful when looking at sites that are, or were, gas stations, factories, laundry or dry cleaning facilities and other uses that could contaminate the soil.

So east Texas you can typically run 1 cow per acre if you feed a bit in the winter, dont have clay soil and have a creek on the property.

I am not necessarily interested in the composition of the soil but rather owning the land beneath someone.

I've dealt with building departments, surveyors, soil tests, excavators, all the trades, scheduling, ordering, and my favorite, design. 

Looking at the walls, they are arriving at very different conclusions of how much work needs to be done to ensure no further movement in the basement walls against the soil pressure.

Maybe because of the expansive soils we have.