We are considering to make an offer on a house on Rhode Island. The house itself is really nice, and it is at the top of a street with a healthy 5 degrees incline, which is very desirable in this area due to flash floods, water backups and general flood risk.

The lawn, however, is currently a mess due to a number of factors it seems. The incline of the backyard is about 10 degrees downwards(which is OK for me, and kind of good for the basement), it is pretty bumpy, and the soil is washed away around stormwater emitters. The area gets a lot of rain, and the owner obviously did not care for the lawn, so I don't know if it would be the same if he cared for it.

My question is, if I smooth out the lawn and backyard with topsoil, how realistic is it to expect it to stay the same way? What do you recommend to do around the stormwater emitters for the soil to stay intact?