Is this a typical strategy

[Cole King]

I recently purchased a parcel of land in rural KY from a guy named Ted. Ted is a broker that buys and flips land. He sometimes will represent a seller, but mostly does stuff for himself. This property that Ted owned was next to a property that I already owned, so Ted approached me about buying it. Ted had owned the property for about 8 years and kept horses on it. He wanted market value for it, maybe a little more. After doing some research, I found these odd transactions, involving the land. Ted initially purchased this land at auction for 55,000 and put the property into his LLC. Here's what's odd. Four years later he transferred the land into his own name and stated a value on the deed of 110,000, which would have been kind of high. Why would he do that? Four years later he sold the land to me for 80,000. This would make the transaction with me a "loss" which I understand, but the transfer 4 years ago that states value 110,000 seems like it negates any loss. Is this a legit strategy, or is this some shenanigans? I did end up buying the land. I was happy and satisfied with the transaction, and I consider this deal done and the book closed, I'm just curious how all that worked, and why.