What Denita said, and it is hard to say from the picture because the angle you took the first picture from the light is blocking the view, but it looks like they opened that wall up and instead of having evenly distributed load from the top along that entire wall, they end up with a point load which caused deflection from excessive loading at that point.

To fix this you will most likely need a 24 X24 X12" footing in the crawl space, jack the wall up to make it level and provide solid blocking with a column resting on that footing.

I did many repairs like that, I would get an architect there to check everything out and provide repair detail, this work would require a building permit so you need to account for that and as the repair goes to be safe I would get some estimates so you know how much to put in escrow and hopefully there are no other structural flaws.

Good luck

I would guestimate a LOW ball bid as $10K with everything working PERFECTLY (which it NEVER does).

The things that can drive up the price: rotten wood in the subfloor; poor soil preventing the cement footings from being seated properly; a nasty seismic assessment that prevents minor upgrades without upgrading the whole home; finding lead pipes; asbestos that needs to be disturbed....

The list goes on and on and on and on. Remember: Murphy's Law was WRITTEN BY the building industry! What can go wrong, will go wrong.

If things go to he!! in a hand basket, you could be adding another zero onto my $10K low-ball estimate.

Ask for the extension (through your lawyer or real estate agent) and get a General Contractor in there who deals with structural issues as well as home remodels. Pay him for his service/report and subtract his fees from your offer/bid (so long as you LAWYER says it is OK to do such a thing). And yes, while you wait for an inspection/quote from the contractor, you want to get your lawyer in on these issues. S/he will make sure you are covered should you have to pull out of this deal. The legal stuff needs to top of the list at this stage. It may cost a bit more up front but it will save your financial future in the end.

When you jack it up - might crack the other wall(s).

A two foot level? Please.

Hang a water level from your wall at an easy to read 48" or so. Run around the house and mark level on the walls with blue masking tape. Measure from the tape to the floor to see what the floor is actually doing. Post the results, please.

Nine out of ten houses I walk through have considerable slope somewhere in them, from 100-year-old homes to new construction. It’s not something that necessarily needs to be leveled out unless you are doing a reno. You can bring in a structural engineer to confirm the house is safe, and if so, the slope may be something you can live with.

I was in a crawlspace with a structural engineer and his damn two foot level. I was not impressed.