I caught your drift and I agree with you. There's no way to give specific
advice without actually seeing the problem first hand. Years ago, I worked
for a contractor who made a great living fixing these problems. The
solutions were mostly low-tech and labor intensive. They often involved
moving massive amounts of dirt, digging up around foundations and installing
water-proofing, gravel and French drains, resloping the entire yard,
building heavy-duty retaining walls, etc. It was neither cheap or easy, but
when we were done, the job was done right. You could take that to the
bank.

A lot of our customers finally called us after they had tried the quick
fixes and cheap-o solutions. One of my favorites was the water-proof paints
applied to the inside of the basements. Think about it. By the time the
water has infiltrated into the blocks you have a huge problem. You're
asking for cracked walls and a collapsed foundation. Painting the walls
with water-proof paint was like putting a band-aid on cancer.

If you guys read my reply, I addressed the yard area, as well as the
area immediately around the house. Yes, I told him what to consider
close to the house FIRST, because that area is most important. Who
knows what's going on there, which way it's graded, etc. It would be
pretty stupid to fix a low spot 20 ft out in the yard by adding fill
and not look at what is most important first. Without considering
that, he could just add fill and wind up with it graded sloping towards
the house.

In reality, there isn't a lot that anyone can tell him about how to fix
this without knowing more about the situation, most importantly the
grading possibilities, given what he has as boundary parameters.