@James Sanchez You must speak with a qualified attorney if you are considering something like this.It can (generally) be done, but must be established and operated properly.  

That said it is always done in accordance to the letter of the law (to the best it can be interpreted by my professional consultants) and under the guidance of my Tax attorney, CPA and other advisors I use for both short and long term goalsEveryone needs to understand that there are enough laws out there to nail anyone if the powers to be want you nailed, there really isn't some unique law or regulation that will be avoided the same way for multiple operators, your case will always be different.Lastly, Unfortunately I am not an expert in many things.

Once that is established, look at you finances to see if you could weather a bad real estate situation.  

I am 19 years old so i havent really established a credit score yet and have saved up about 6k.

Get your business structure established and make a business plan.  

Thank you everyone for you advice, and input, I did contact the bank and broker got back to me, I talked to my financial advisor who was my professor in my economics class and who I had also owned a mortgage company for 30+ years and who I am also seeking investment advice from, since he has years building portfolios for his clients and he informed me as well that properties like these receive plenty of offers and usually end up being higher than the asking price and that they also can come along with a lot of taxes that the previous owners did not pay.

Is anyone aware of any financial planners/advisors in the greater NYC metro that are also active real estate investors?

Your guy from the Netherlands needs to establish a LLC which will own the properties.One additional step involves filing paperwork with the IRS.

The vast majority of advisors generally recommend that you hold as rental/investment property for 24 months and then you have an additional 12 months in which to market and sell your property and still qualify for the 121 Exclusion. 

Even though it may pay off in the long run years down the line, Atlanta has plenty of rent friendly areas that are already well established that will give you a great return on your investment.