Trusting a contractor

Hey all, Noob here so bear with me. My wife and I are doing a reno on our Manhattan apartment kitchen. It is a 12'X7' gut job with half a wall being removed, moving a doorway and adding a pocket door. My wife had a contractor come in to give us a bid (same one she used to reno her bathroom 6 years ago).. We then posted something on our building website and a woman from our complex emails my wife,... [more]

Hey all, Noob here so bear with me. My wife and I are doing a reno on our Manhattan apartment kitchen. It is a 12'X7' gut job with half a wall being removed, moving a doorway and adding a pocket door. My wife had a contractor come in to give us a bid (same one she used to reno her bathroom 6 years ago).. We then posted something on our building website and a woman from our complex emails my wife, telling us about her contractor who did a great job. We bring him in. He is super nice, telling her how he can get a deal with custom cabinet makers. He also knows a guy that can get good quartz countertops. He'll even take us to the cabinet showroom in Yonkers. He also has worked in the building and says our maintainence office knows him. He also mentioned that he will not nickel and dime us. So he texts us a cost of 60% less. We were so excited. But later in the day, when we he sends a formal bid, he did not include any prices. He said in the text that since we were talking cash, he wouldn't put dollar figures on the bid. (Shady). So I looked him up on Angie's list, not listed. I looked up with the business online and it shows his business but established in 2010 (not the 17 years he has been in business). It also states only 1 employee and estimated 20K of revenue. We emailed the woman that recommend the contractor and she has not responded. Now, I called our management office and asked if they have worked with him before. She said that we should be wary and that in her professional opinion, we should be error on the side of caution. She also said if a bid comes in really low, that we should expect change orders and higher charges during the reno. She also recalls that the job this contractor did was "not seamless." What should we do? We plan to ask him for more references, with names and numbers so we can contact the owners and ask about quality of work. Is there anything else we can do to ensure the quality of the work? We do plan to get more bids. Joe [less]