Three mortgage companies are expanding their third-party origination footprints in different ways.

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Achieve is starting a correspondent channel to help market its fixed-rate home equity line of credit product.

Nectar Kalajian has joined the company to head up this effort, Achieve Pro, as the managing director of Achieve Home Loans. Among Kalajian’s past positions in her more than 40 years of mortgage and consumer lending experience includes being a co-founder of Claudvirga as well as time at Countrywide, Newrez and Finance of America Mortgage.

Traditional HELOCs have variable rates, and this is a concern for borrowers, Kalajian said. Even if they have been making payments, those can go higher as interest rates rise.

But the Achieve HELOC offers amortization terms ranging from 10 years to 30 years. Being fixed rate, it gives consumers stability for their payments and not having to be concerned about them going higher, Kalajian said.

This effort is aimed not just at independent mortgage bankers, but also banks and credit unions; depositories are the primary generator of HELOCs.

But this gives all of these originators a variation on the product they have not been offering, and just one more tool as competition for home equity lending heats up because of rising values and the slowdown in mortgage lending.

Besides being available as a more traditional use of a second lien, Achieve will make this available for a first-lien loan.

How long has Achieve been originating HELOCs

Achieve has been originating HELOCs since 2019 as part of its broader offerings, including personal loans and debt consolidation loans. The company has been able to securitize these. Kalajian noted. It is also a HELOC specialist, which means it is not competition for their customers for more traditional mortgage products.

“The opportunity is big,” with a $35 trillion market, she said.

“Helping lenders that have already been originating this product, but not our product, is the way to help consumers in an environment that they need a lot of help on,” Kalajian said. As well as introducing the Achieve product to the B2B side, “which is totally different than what they’re used to, and other lenders offer.”

With its six years of production and doing securitizations, “we’ve got a track record that this product has been a really strong product for the consumer,” said Kalajian. “Our delinquencies have been extremely low, if none, and our consumers are giving us great referrals as far as their savings.”

Approximately one month ago, Achieve upsized the loan limit for product to $500,000 from $300,000; shortly, this limit will be boosted to $700,000.

Furthermore, Kalajian noted Achieve will go as low as 600 credit score (albeit at a lower loan amount), which is also a point of interest for lenders. Most HELOC originators will not go below a 640 credit score.

Deephaven adds features to a HELOC offering

In other third party origination news, Deephaven Mortgage has added features to the Equity Advantage HELOC product it markets through the wholesale and correspondent channels.

While the minimum remains at $50,000, the new maximum is $1 million, double the prior $500,000 limit. It will be available in Texas, albeit at a maximum combined loan-to-value of 80% on a primary residence only. The product is now available in 44 states.

Deephaven allows for a co-borrower, at a minimum 620 credit score. Lender paid compensation on the full line amount is 250 basis points.

“In a robust HELOC market, these changes empower our partners to meet the needs of more borrowers with flexibility and agility,” said Tom Davis, chief sales officer at Deephaven.

Planet enters non-agency TPO lending

Meanwhile, Planet, which recently rebranded, expanded its third party origination business to include non-agency products. These include non-qualified mortgage/alternative income and debt service coverage ratio loans.

The company received significant adoption among its correspondent customers from its non-agency pilot introduced at the end of 2025.

“In today’s market, sellers are prioritizing counterparties that offer the full range of correspondent delivery options consistently across cycles,” said Planet CEO Michael Dubeck in a press release. “That aligns well with our multichannel, multiproduct model.”

Welp, I’ve been warning folks for a while now and here we are. New 2026 highs for the 30-year fixed.

Sooner or later, the protracted Iranian conflict was going to catch up to us.

You can’t have $100 a barrel oil and not expect inflation to rise, which translates to higher bond yields and mortgage rates.

And so after some suspiciously low interest rates for the past month and change, we are on the rise again.

The next logical question is just how high mortgage rates might go before we get relief again.

The 30-Year Fixed Hits a New High for the Year

At last glance, the 10-year bond yield was up a massive 12 basis points on the day thanks to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

While we had been promised there would be a swift resolution for weeks, it has failed to materialize.

In the meantime, we’ve since seen hot inflation reports, whether it’s CPI or PPI.

There’s just no way around it when oil is consistently priced at over $100 per barrel. It’s not just gas prices. Oil touches everything we buy.

Adding to the worries was President Trump’s visit to China with leader Xi Jinping and fears a conflict could transpire with Taiwan.

That could turn the current conflict into a wider, global ordeal, though at the moment that’s simply rhetoric.

Still, it’s clear the Iran situation is reason enough for bond yields to be higher and for inflation fears to be fully renewed.

That means just one thing for mortgage rates. Higher ones! Bonds despise inflation and if it’s expected to ramp up again, well, so is your 30-year fixed mortgage rate.

Just How High Will Mortgage Rates Go?

The next question to ask, since it’s clear mortgage rates are now on an upward trajectory, is how high?

How high might they go before things settle down again? And when will they reverse course?

Well, I’ve said for a while now that they were going to go up. I was honestly surprised they stayed as low as they did.

I think a lot of folks were a hair too optimistic that we’d score a peace deal. Iran had other thoughts.

But now it appears reality is setting in. Today, the 30-year fixed might match its 2026 high of roughly 6.625%.

From there, we might go to 6.75%, 6.875%, and dare I say a 7-handle before things top out.

That was once unthinkable, as it appeared those “high rates” were behind us. But now it’s only a stone’s throw away.

It really depends on what transpires in the conflict and if the economic data continues to come in hot.

I’ve mentioned several times that mortgage rates are highest in May and June, historically.

So if they hit their highs of the year this month and next it would be basically right on cue.

The good news is I do think we eventually find a resolution and things settle down, potentially before the midterms in November.

Not necessarily because of those elections, but because enough time will have passed that we can figure out some sort of diplomatic solution.

And speaking of timing, mortgage rates tend to be lowest in winter, so perhaps they peak in the summer, and begin easing later in the year.

The bad news is they’re likely going to throw cold water on the spring housing market and it’s going to be another dismal year for home sales, which have been stuck at 30-year lows now for the past couple years.

Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.

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