Slab Foundation issues? Water, wall cracks, & tile cracks.

[David Morrison]

Hey guys,

First rental property under contract. It’s a 15 year old house built on a slab in Tennessee, 3bd/2ba. Red flags went up on first viewing when water was pooled around back and a little at front of house foundation during snowmelt. Gutters are going underground. Presumably leaking or overwhelmed? Gutter repair estimate is $550 to put 6” gutters instead of 5” and then they recommend running above ground instead of underground. No telling how well they drain underground.

Cracks: (see pics!)

Inside the house it’s in pretty great move-in ready shape except - 4 or 5 cracks above doors and windows, and then a 6-foot long hairline crack in the kitchen tile from one end to the other. That’s concerning to me in addition to the water. Presumably the water caused settling and some cracks which I’ve read and been told is normal for both newer and older houses but am nervous this could cause bigger issues down the line. Foundation repair company came out to analyze and give a free estimate. The house has vinyl siding so you can’t see the exterior walls but he didn’t see any issues with the block/slab foundation around the edges of the house. However, with a laser level inside they said one end of the house horizontally is 1” lower than the other and front to back just 1/4”. One bedroom door and bathroom door don’t stay open, they slowly swing closed. But all doors and windows open and close correctly. No issues there. 
They quoted $4k to drill holes into foundation and pump a polymer quick hardening liquid into it to hopefully remediate. Plus we have to pull floor and refloor it all ($2k). So that’s $6,500 when my down payment was just gonna be $21k. 

My questions:

Is 1” difference a big deal, or is this normal settlement? Improving the gutters I hope would alleviate future settlement issues and most of the cracks except for 2 just look like drywall tape separation. I can repair that with mud and new tape. 

Or is this a money pit and I should run? It’s my first property and our market is red hot for both RE and rentals with hardly anything available so I don’t want to lose this but also don’t want a $10-15k repair down the line. Anybody had experience? Newer house, just 15 years old. 

Should I get an engineer or someone out? Independent inspector? I did my own 3-hour inspection of everything else. 

See pics and I’d love your advice. 

Crack above side door:

Kitchen tile cracks ^