Yes, sound proof is poor especially in old properties. U can hear someone 😪 zzz at night from downstairs or even next store. Or kids can hear what u are doing in your room too.🙈😹👻
I live in California. What happen here is the house can be listed at a certain price and if you offer the listing price, the seller may not accept your offer. Usually, the low listing price is to generate many offers and the seller can sell to the highest bidder or reject them all. I have seen houses sold for $150K over listing price recently. Don't assume you can offer the listing price and the seller will accept your offer. I don't remember if there was any negotiation for the house I used to own in Lution, Bedfordshire. It was long long time ago, bought it for 13500 pounds in early 1977 and sold it for 26500 pounds at end of 1999. Last year when I checked, it was worth about 250K pounds.