A single line and a number
"Kitchen remodel — $34,000" is not a bid. It is a price with no scope attached, which means there is nothing to hold anyone to. Every disagreement later becomes your word against theirs.
This is not automatically a bad contractor. Plenty of good ones write badly. Ask for the same number broken into trades before you decide anything.
Every number ends in three zeros
A bid where every line is $4,000, $8,000, $12,000 was not built up from quantities and unit prices. It was allocated backwards from a total the contractor had in mind.
That is fine for a rough conversation and dangerous as a contract, because there is nothing underneath any line to defend it when material prices move.
A large deposit, or a payment schedule tied to time
Payments should be tied to completed work, not to the calendar. "35% on signing" on a job that has not been scheduled is money you cannot get back if the crew never shows.
Norms vary by state and some cap deposits by law. What is consistent: draws should correspond to milestones you can see with your own eyes.
- Deposit larger than the first real material order
- Payments dated rather than milestone-based
- A final payment small enough that walking away costs them nothing
No licence number, no insurance certificate
Ask for both, in writing, and check the licence with your state or municipality rather than taking the number at face value. Ask for the certificate of insurance to come from the insurer, not as a photo.
You want general liability and workers’ compensation. Without the second one, an injury on your property can become your problem.
It is meaningfully cheaper and nobody has said why
A bid that is 20% under the others is telling you something. Usually it is scope — permits missing, a lower material grade, no supervision line, appliances excluded. Occasionally it is a contractor who wants the work and has priced it thin, which is its own risk, because a job that stops halfway costs more than the difference.
The question is never "why is it cheap". It is "what is in the other two that is not in this one" — and that question has an answer you can find on the page.
Pressure
A price that expires tomorrow, a discount for signing today, or a crew that "happens to be in the neighbourhood" are sales techniques, not pricing. A real bid is good for two to four weeks and says so.