Anyone can show polished mockups. What matters is sites you can actually visit, on real domains, built for real businesses. If a designer can't point you to at least two or three, that's worth asking about directly.
"A professional website" isn't a scope. How many pages? Is a contact form included? SEO foundations? Analytics? Get the actual list — vague scoping is the single most common source of disputes once a project is underway.
Some cheaper setups keep the domain or hosting under the developer's account, not yours — which means you don't fully control your own business's website. Ask directly, and get it in writing that both are registered in your name.
Is there a support window included? What does it cost per month after that ends? A site that breaks two weeks after launch with no support plan is a common, avoidable problem.
The cheapest quote and the most expensive quote can include wildly different scopes. Price alone tells you very little — compare what's in each quote, not just the number at the bottom.
Not automatically, but a 50% deposit with the balance due on delivery is far more standard, and protects both sides if something goes wrong mid-project.
Yes — for most projects you should see a homepage direction before full build-out begins, not just the finished result.
If a quote is dramatically below others for the same written scope, ask specifically what's excluded — SEO foundations, mobile responsiveness, and post-launch support are common things missing from very low quotes.