The buyback offers will cover the purchase price, closing costs, moving expenses, home improvements and incidental expenses.

Centex also will pay for attorneys' fees, although it said it would not cover large contingency fees. Instead, it will offer to pay the costs to homeowners who have consulted with an attorney and want someone to review the buyback documents, company spokeswoman Valerie Dolenga said.

Centex said the first phase of slope stabilization work, including “drilling and inserting a series of stabilizing piers in an engineered pattern across the slope failure area,” would start as soon as the city approves the company's plans.

The builder and developer of the Rivermist communities has been talking with members of the city's Department of Planning and Development Services but Dolenga said the company will make a more formal presentation of its plans Friday.

Terracon, an engineering firm retained by Centex to investigate the wall collapse and soil movement, found the “slope failure and damage to the retaining wall was the result of deep soil movement on the slope above and below the wall,” according to a Centex news release.

About 80 Rivermist homeowners held a news conference and protest Wednesday on Treewell Glen, the street at the top of the slope that collapsed.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the consumer advocacy group Home Owners for Better Building and the Alliance for Home Buyer Justice, a project of the Laborers' International Union, also were there.

Homeowners held signs with messages that included, “Buy Back Our Homes” and “Watch for Falling Home Values” — a key concern for residents.

“We've worked all our lives for nothing,” resident Dell Hammett said. “It makes us sick.”

Hammett's home isn't among those with a suspended certificate of occupancy but she said she's concerned about the diminished value of her home, cracks in her walls, nail pops and other signs of foundation movement.

Dozens of homeowners have asked Centex and parent company Pulte Homes to buy their homes back.

But the Centex buyback offer announced Wednesday draws the line between the evacuated homeowners and others who want the company to buy back homes due to a loss of market value.

Carlos Pena, who bought a house a few months ago at the top of the slope, stood at his back door and pointed to where the earth fell away from his house. The area where his back porch once stood now drops straight down at least 10 feet and his entire backyard sank.

He has received a buyback offer but said it doesn't address the stress his family has experienced.

“It's not enough,” Pena said.

His three children keep asking when they can return home, and he has been unable to get clear answers from the builder about deep piers placed under his house without his knowledge or permission.

“From my understanding, the piers are bending,” he said.

State Rep. David Leibowitz, who attended the rally, said residents should be cautious about the buyback agreements.

“I strongly encourage you to not sign something until you know what you are signing,” he said.

Janet Ahmad, president of Home Owners for Better Building, said she thought the 27 buyback offers were “a good place to start.”

“Rivermist is a wakeup call for the need for regulation,” Ahmad said.

Many residents have sent letters to the company saying the homes have been “irrevocably stigmatized” by the slope failure, and that the incident represents a “financial setback to our family and our future.”

Dolenga said that Centex would address any construction problems with homes.

“We stand behind the work that we do,” Dolenga said. “Some people haven't even reached out to us. Where do you draw that line? If you have issues with your home, call us.”

For displaced homeowners who want to return to their Rivermist homes, Centex will pay for housing until construction of the new wall is complete and a certificate of occupancy is reissued.

On Jan. 24, some residents at the top of a steep hillside in The Hills of Rivermist watched huge cracks open up in their backyards. A large retaining wall cracked, and the quickly shifting soil damaged at least three homes at the top of the slope. Authorities evacuated 91 houses.

The city later allowed most families to return but declared 27 homes near the area unsafe to occupy for now.

The retaining wall collapse has put both city inspectors and home builders on the alert.

The city has been inspecting retaining walls across the city and has told its staffers to be on the lookout for retaining walls — and the proper documentation for the walls — on or near any projects they are inspecting.

In the wake of the collapse, San Antonio home builders have been scrambling to find engineering documents for retaining walls built in the past three years. Because so few builders or developers ever applied for the permit, no one really knows how many retaining walls are in San Antonio.

Home builders have until March 31 to apply for permits retroactively for retaining walls higher than four feet and must show the walls were both designed by an engineer and built correctly.

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