To pull permits or not?

[Candela Rebot]

Hey everyone! 

My boyfriend and I just closed on our very first property. It's a SFR in which we intend to live for 2 years, and fix up or rent some rooms out as we go until we are ready to move out and repeat the process. We would've some advice in regards to permits: The house is in really good shape, but the kitchen is very old so we have a licensed contractor on stand by to start renovating it as soon as we make this decision. We just can't decide if we need to pull permits or not. The kitchen has a half wall (vertically, not like horizontally as a breakfast bar would) that we are gonna knock down to open up the kitchen to the living room. We are also planning to close a window so that we can put more cabinets. Pluming doesn't need any changes, there's an outlet on the wall we are tearing down so I imagine we'll move it (electric) and we would need to move the gas line as the oven is in that awkward half wall and we are moving it elsewhere.

Our contractor, and a good friend of ours who has been flipping for 15+ years both advised that we don't need them at all. The renovation would take 3 weeks tops, (contractor says 2 but I'm assuming an extra week to be safe), and if we pull permits it will be a bit more expensive and take roughly 5-6 weeks. 

What do you guys think? I was set on not needing them, but my boyfriend brought up the fact that maybe we should to a void issues with neighbors whom might complain, I don't know what to think. Appreciate any and all advice as to how and when you guys decide permits are necessary!