And I noticed the bumper stickers on their car . 

By the way if a lender deems a borrowers home abandoned, they will go ahead and secure it, check on it every couple weeks, and leave those stickers.

The market is slower because rates have caused sticker shock, which means lower prices and less competition. 10% over asking was a thing a few months ago, even here in Milwaukee.

@Michael J Scanlon there has been a lot of sticker shock for me this year in the insurance side of things.

People are just a bit sticker shocked if they know how much they used to cost.

I literally have sticker shock.  

I am also very honest with them and I tell them as they get farther and farther behind market rent with the rate they are paying when I do have to raise it a bunch, like say $200/mo to stay at least within eyesight of market rent, I acknowledge that they likely experience "sticker shock" and their first inclination is to say "hell no"/deny it, and want to move out. 

The max I'm raising rent on a current tenant is 10% and that is even a sticker shock to a majority of the local population. 

Yr 2 - $1,200/ mo (1 year lease), or $1,300/ mo (6mo lease) and $1,400 (month to month).Yr 3 - $1,400/ mo (1 year lease), or $1,500/ mo (6mo lease) and $1,600 (month to month).Has anyone else dealt with this, or have any strategies to reduce sticker-shock/ timeline to reach the market rate?

Also, some states are stickers on different things. i do recommend getting a Property Manager as they should already have all of that.