I can't think of a worse way to accomplish . . . well, whatever they were trying to accomplish.  There's no asset protection, in fact, now if something bad happens on the property, the injured party can go probably after the assets of BOTH father and son.  It certainly doesn't save on taxes.  If dad is in poor health he's just created a capital gain for himself (when he could have gotten a step-up in basis).  Maybe if the numbers are small and Dad had NOLs to absorb?  But even then, I don't see the upside here.  <shrug>