As a matter of principal I will never buy a house that depends on a sump pump to keep the basement dry.
The house I grew up in was at the low point of the street (the street was about 8 inches lower than the next catch basin in front of our house), and the main floor was about a foot or so lower than the street, with the lot sloping back to a bank (drop-off) to the riover flats. In a heavy rain, the street would fill with water, and trucks going by (or even cars) would cause a wake that splashed water over to the house. The water would run in the front door, across the linoleum living room floor, down the basement stairs, and out the cellar drain to the river flats. Dad pured a retaining wall along the front of the house, against the foundation and extending up a foot or so above foundation level, and poured a concrete front poach about 8 inches higher than the living room floor, so you had to step down going in - with a raised threshold lip. A brick "railing" around the porch acted as a breakwater, and we had a drop-in "floodgate" that blocked the entrance in rainy weather. Those modifications kept the water out of the house on all but the very worst rainstorms.
Dad bought that house for $2000 in 1957. It was built before confederation (I think it was 87 years old when he bought it). He sold it in 1975 and it was demolished and replaced by several townhouses just last year.
Both my first house and this one are at the high point of the street, in sand, on an open gravel bottom with no sump.