Wells Fargo likely does not own the house. They likely are the servicer of the loan and the house is owned by Fannie, Freddie, or a large investor in MBS. Unlikely they will talk to you unless the foreclosing entity decides to retail out the house.
There really is very little shadow inventory. Some of it was sold at retail, a lot was bulk sold to investors. With prices going up in most markets, some large fund and corporate investors are buying up the remaining packages of properties.
The name on the Assessor's records may not reflect the true ownership. Pull the deeds from the Recorder to see if you can reconstruct the ownership history.