“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money – that’s all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The
common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
Source : http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/236559-it-s-unwise-to-pay-too-much-but-it-s-worse-to
It is much more expensive to have to tear something apart and fix it than it is to do it right in the first place. This is why checking the reputation of your contractor is the most important step you can take. If all contractors were the same, it would make sense to go with the lowest price but they aren’t. For example, a pretty good contractor will do almost everything right when installing a window. If one step is missed or is done improperly though, the window will leak, your cabinets won’t look quite right, etc Everyone makes mistakes from time to time so the next question does the contractor stand behind his/her work? It is worth taking the time to find out before you even ask for the price.