I agree there is way too few South Africans here on BP.I've scoured P24.com and PrivateProperty.co.za and I've kept an eye on the commercial property sections, as I'm aware multi family is classified under commercial.

I moved to the U.S. back in 2012; you could classify me as an ‘international investor’ buying U.S. real estate, even though I reside here.

But if you are not classified as a real estate professional you cannot use more than $25k of depreciation against other income and depending on your situation that figure may be less.

I have already posted classified ads in the newspaper and on Craigslist.

If you are classifying yourself as a contractor rather than an employee, the earnings won’t be subject to payroll taxes and can be taken as a distribution allowing the S-Corp to avoid paying SE taxes.

Also if you follow through with some measure of success by preserving these abandoned properties could you look at eventually getting classified as a Non profit?

You are asking the right questions and as far as resale there are many ways, what I had years ago was only the classified section of out of town properties or the penny saver, still sold thousands of acres that way.

@Jeff Greenberg are you seriously stating that the months searching spent searching for an apt complex automatically make that investment classified as active?

I currently work in energy consulting and have my single owner LLC that is classified as an S Corp.  

i have several classic cars that i classify as investments, some double in value others break even when i sell them. i own a repair shop so cars are rarely an expense. even my every day drivers are fixer uppers so i drive for several years and get all my money back when i sell them. 1973 camaro with supercharger,79 z28 7000 orignal miles,69 olds 442,69 riveria,69 torino gt, 86 iroc. 05 escalade,99 f-250 diesel,03 t&c van.