QCD is not recorded, is it still valid?

I met a person, who’ve got a QCD from the homeowner (didn’t record it) and now wants to do short sale in order to buy a house for discounted price. Homeowner didn’t pay mortgage for two months, so I can start a short sale, no problem, but this guy, who is a Grantee, has three houses were QCD’d to him and he didn’t record them and he wants to put tenants in those houses and collect the money while process of foreclosure is going on and then he will damp a house, which still NOT on his name.
My question: is it legitimate? Apparently it’s not ethic, but in terms of law: is it legal?

I would stay as far as I can from this situation.

I thought so…doesn’t sound right
Thank you