Part exchanging my home with another private seller

[djdubs]

Hi, Hope some of you property moguls might be able to offer me some advice..? I currently have my house for sale in the hope I may buy a barn conversion I`ve seen. Up to now I`ve had bits of interest but no offers. However, today someone came to view who really likes the house, the thing is they haven't even got their house on the market yet. After talking to them it seems they live in a pair of semi detaches (mother and daughter) and have knocked through some 30 years ago to form one big house so daughter may look after elderly mother. The house is just down the road and in a relatively good spot, they've had the estate agents out who have had a look and said they'd be better reinstating the house back to semis to increase its/their value. The thing is the mother and daughter don't want to get involved with this but I was thinking it might be a good, quick project for me if I took it in part ex with a view to selling them on after splitting up but with a quick turnaround (approx 6 weeks if poss).
My questions are this..

Would I be best to go through the estate agent and if not who would decide a true value of the house I would buy (mine is already up for sale)?

Could we 'write back' the value of each of the homes to under £250k to avoid the excessive stamp duty?

What solicitors or other fees should I expect to pay?

The two semis still have seperate house numbers so would I need two mortgages on them or just the one as its currently being used as a single detached house?

If I resell quickly what penalties woud I be likely to face.. capital gains, early mortgage repayment, etc..?

Has anybody done this type of thing before? I`ve had a few friends do it through house builders (new builds) but never like this.

.. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[-Pete-]

I doubt if you can avoid stamp duty, but there's no reason to pay estate agents as afaik they can only claim payment if they make the introduction between buyer and seller, or their advertising makes the buyer aware of the property for sale.

[sumo69]

Making a turn on a property in this short timescale and with the sole intention at the start of making a profit doing so would mean any profits would be viewed as trading rather than capital gains by HMRC - this means no CGT exemption, potentially Class 2 and 4 NIC (depending what NIC you are already paying) and income tax at your marginal rate.

David

[djdubs]

Thanks for the replies chaps, hadn't thought about the tax issue.. Will have to potentially build that into the figures. Waiting to hear from estate agents

[Nick67]

Would it be your intention to live in one of them when it has been renovated and then sell, as this would surely have principal private residence relief.

Not sure of the timescale, but if you did one up and lived in it then, then sold and moved into the other could you claim PPR twice?